São Paulo – The Brazilian balance of trade recorded a US$ 334 million deficit in the third week of August, as a result of US$ 4.686 billion in exports and US$ 5.02 billion in imports, according to information released this Monday (19th) by the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
Daily exports from Brazil averaged at US$ 937.2 million, down 3.2% from the average in the first two weeks of August. According to the Ministry, basic goods exports were down 12.4%, including soybean, iron ore, crude oil and meats.
Exports of semi-manufactured goods were up 3.7%, driven by raw sugar, wood pulp, gold, cast iron and ferroalloys. Manufactured goods sales were up 2.8%, especially automobiles cargo vehicles, ethanol, plastic polymers, ground levelling machines and tractors.
Imports averaged at US$ 1.004 billion per day, up 13.7% from the average in the two prior weeks. Imports increased for fuels and lubricants, mechanical equipment, customer electronics, autos and their parts, organic and inorganic chemicals, and fertilizers.
The result caused the month-to-date trade surplus to decline from US$ 593 million in the first two weeks to US$ 259 million thus far in August. In August, exports stand at US$ 11.463 billion and imports stand at US$ 11.204 billion.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
