São Paulo – Brazil posted a US$ 24 million trade deficit in the second week of March. According to data released this Monday (16th) by the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, exports averaged US$ 724.8 million a day last week, adding up to US$ 3.624 billion. Imports averaged US$ 729.6 million a day, or US$ 3.648 billion total.
Year-to-date in March, exports average US$ 755.4 million and imports average US$ 762.8 million per day. Exports are down 18.6% and imports are down 17.2% from March 2014.
Data from the Ministry for the second week of March 2015 show exports dropped for basic and manufactured goods, and went up for semi-finished goods compared with March 2014. Basic goods exports amounted to US$ 328.4 million in the second week of the month, down 32.4% from March 2014. However, sales declined for iron ore, soybean, pork, poultry, beef and crude oil.
Manufactured goods exports fetched US$ 295 million from the 9th to the 15th, down 6.7% from average revenues in March 2014. Sales declined the most for aircraft, plastic polymers, motors and generators, auto engines, refined sugar and auto parts. Semi-finished goods exports reached US$ 109.3 million, up 6.2% from March 2014. The higher sales were fuelled by semi- processed gold, raw sugar, sawed wood, wood pulp, ferroalloys and cast iron.
Imports declined the most for fertilizers, down 33.4% from March 2014, fuels and lubricants, down 30.1%, rubber and rubber products (-24.5%) and mechanical equipment (-20.1%).
The trade deficit stands at US$ 74 million month-to-date and US$ 6.089 billion year-to-date. In the comparable period of 2014, Brazil was running a US$ 5.795 billion trade deficit, as per Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade data.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum