São Paulo – The Brazilian trade balance registered a surplus of US$ 1.195 billion in July’s third week, after recording a US$ 174 million deficit in the previous week. Exports fetched US$ 4.667 billion, and imports, US$ 3.472 billion. The data was released this Monday (20th) by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC).
The exports’ daily average, from July 13th to 17th, stood at US$ 933.4 million, an amount 23.4% higher than the average registered up to the second week of the month. External sales of semi-finished products increased 81%, driven by raw sugar, wood pulp, semi-finished iron and steel products and ferro-alloy.
Exports of finished products increased 21.2%, driven by sales of auto, flat-rolled products, iron or steel pipe fittings, orange juice and plastic polymers. External sales of basic goods had a 13.8% increase, particularly soybean grains, soybean meal, beef and maize grains.
Meanwhile, imports showed a drop of 0.6% in the daily average, with US$ 694.4 million. The decline is due to slower purchases of organic and inorganic chemical products and compost and fertilizers.
In July’s total, exports added up to US$ 10.717 billion, and imports, US$ 9.060 billion. Year-to-date, Brazil has external sales of US$ 105.046 billion and purchases abroad of US$ 101.168, with a surplus of US$ 3.878 billion.
In the comparison to July 2014, external sales in this year’s July declined 17.6%, while imports dropped 25.3%.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
