Brasília – After starting the month on a positive note, Brazil’s trade balance has posted a deficit in the third week of March. According to figures released this Monday (18th) by the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, the deficit stood at US$ 448 million, as against US$ 61 million and US$ 175 million surpluses in the first and second week of the month, respectively.
Last week’s performance reversed the trade balance results for March. The combined deficit from the 1st to 17th was US$ 212 million, with imports at US$ 10.101 billion and exports at US$ 9.889 billion.
Year-to-date, the trade balance is running a US$ 5.526 billion deficit, as a result of US$ 46.931 billion in imports and US$ 41.405 billion in exports. The January deficit was US$ 4.036 billion and the February deficit was US$ 1.278 billion. From January until the third week of March last year, the balance of trade had run a US$ 1.127 billion surplus.
According to the Ministry, the trade balance should keep posting deficits up until April because measure taken last year caused imports made by Petrobras to be accounted for at a later date. Due to that, said imports were only included in trade balance calculations starting in late 2012.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
