São Paulo – Brazil posted a US$ 299 million surplus in the first week of September, during which exports amounted to US$ 4.765 billion and imports stood at US$ 4.466 billion. According to figures released this Monday (9th) by the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, year-to-date, however, the Brazilian trade balance is running a US$ 3.470 billion deficit. By the first week of September, the country exported US$ 161.419 billion and imported US$ 164.889 billion worth of products.
According to the results, exports averaged at US$ 953 million per day to date in September this year, down 9.5% from US$ 1.053 billion in the same period of 2012. In the first week of September, exports were down across all three product categories.
Manufactured goods exports were down 12.3% based on daily average figures, mostly due to reduced sales of fuel oils, land levellers, auto parts, engines and generators, refined sugar, ethanol and cargo vehicles. Semi-manufactured goods sales were down 6.7% due to a decline in exports of ferroalloys, raw sugar and semi-manufactured iron and steel products.
Basic goods exports were down 7.9% from the first week of September 2012, due to a decline in exports of raw cotton, coffee beans, crude oil, maize, iron ore, pork and tobacco leaves. Brazilian exports were also down 2.1% from the first week of August, according to the ministry.
Less imports
Imports also declined, averaging at US$ 893.2 million per day in the first week of September, down 2.7% from US$ 918.2 million in the same period of September 2012. The sharpest declines took place in imports of pharmaceuticals, down 20.2%, autos and auto parts (down 13.3%), fuels and lubricants (-11.6%), grain and milling products (-2.6%) and optics and precision instruments (-1.8%).
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
