São Paulo – The trade balance closed the third week of May with a surplus of US$ 563 million, according to the result of the period between 12th and 18th released this Monday (19th) by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC). In the period, US$ 5.155 billion were exported, with a daily average of US$ 1.031 billion, a drop of 0.6% in relation to the second week of the month. Imports reached US$ 4.592 billion, or US$ 918.4 million per day, down 8.1% in comparison to the second week of the month.
According to the MDIC, in the third week the exports of staple goods increased by 2.7%, due to the increase in shipment of crude oil, iron ore, beef, coffee beans, copper ore and tobacco leaves.
The shipment of semi-manufactured goods dropped by 8.4% due to the decrease in shipments of raw sugar, wood pulp, leather and fur, iron alloys and semi-manufactured iron and steel. Sales of manufactured goods dropped by 1.7%, due to in the shipments of vehicles, car parts, refined sugar, plastic polymers, cargo vehicles and orange juice.
Among the imports, the sharpest declines were in the purchases of fuel, lubricants, mechanical equipment, electronic equipment, vehicles and parts and fertilizers.
Month and year results
In the 11 working days of May, exports amounted to US$11.379 billion, a value 0.5% lower than in May 2013, by the daily average. Imports reached US$ 10.590 billion, down 4% compared to May last year. This month, the surplus until the 18th is US$ 789 million. In the first and second week combined Brazilian trade balance posted a surplus of US$ 226 million.
From January until the third week of May exports amounted to US$ 80.691 billion, down 2.1% in comparison to the same period in 2013. Imports in the period amounted to US$ 85.468 billion. In 2014, the balance of trade racked up losses of US$ 4.777 billion. In the same period last year, deficit amounted to US$ 5.089 billion, according to a survey conducted by MDIC.
*Translated by Rodrigo Mendonça
