Brasília – The Brazilian balance of trade posted a surplus in the first fortnight of March. According to information released this Monday (17) by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign trade (Mdic), exports exceed imports by US$ 401 million in the first 8 weekdays of this month. The balance totalled US$ 14.7 billion until March 16th, with exporting at US$ 7.5 billion and importing at US$ 7.1 billion.
Export income averaged at US$ 949.1 million. The amount is 1.7% lower than in March last year, when the average was US$ 966 million. In this comparison, there has been a drop of 13% in manufactured goods sales, mainly due to orange juice, vehicle engines and parts, pumps and compressor, passengers cars, car parts, paper, cardboard and refined sugar.
There was also a decrease of 14.9% in daily exports of semi manufactured goods, such as raw aluminium, semi manufactured of iron and steel, raw soy oil, raw sugar, semi manufactured gold, semi manufactured cast iron and iron alloys. However, there was an increase in the sales of staple goods by 11.6%, mainly due to soy beans, cattle, soybean meal, copper ore, beef and pork. Compared to the average in February this year, exports are up 19.1%. The increase is in all areas, manufactured goods up 6.7%, staple goods up 38.2% and semi manufactured goods up 0.9%.
The daily average was US$ 899 million in the first fortnight of May. There has been a drop of 6.1% over March last year, when it reached US$ 957.9 million. Sales of fertilisers, fuel and lubricants, pharmaceutical products, cereals and grinding gear, aircrafts and parts dropped. Over February there was a decrease of 0.4%.
In the year’s accumulated result, the balance of trade had a deficit of US$ 5.7 billion. The deficit is higher than in the same period in 2013, when it was in US$ 5 billion.
*Translated by Rodrigo Mendonça
