São Paulo – Brazilian imports and exports continued to drop in the third week of March, while the trade deficit increased. According to data released this Monday (23th) by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC), the negative balance recorded between March 16th and 22nd was of R$ 199 million (US$ 62.5 million), and month-to-date it stands at R$ 273 million (US$ 85.8 million).
According to the MDIC, in the third week of March exports stood at US$ 735.4 million per business day, a figure 2.6% less than the one recorded in the second week of the month. Imports reached US$ 775.2 million on average per day, or 1.6% more than the previous week.
In March, exports stand at US$ 748.7 million as daily average, 19.3% less than March 2014. While imports stand at US$ 766.9 million on a daily average, or 16.8% less in the same comparison.
Comparing the average of March 2015 with the one from March 2014, exports of basic goods and manufactured products dropped, but semi-finished products went up.
Among basic goods, the drop registered was of 32%, mainly due to the performance of iron ore, soybean in grain, pork, poultry, beef and crude oil.
Among the manufactured products, the drop registered was of 8.2%, due to the decline of exports of auto, engines and generators and plastic polymers.
As with semi-finished, exports increased 4.2%, boosted by the sales of copper cathodes, cast iron, semi-finished gold, raw sugar, ferro-alloys, lumber and cellulose.
Among imported products, the purchases that dropped the most were mineral and chemical fertilizers, with a decline of 37.3%; auto and auto parts, with a 28% drop; rubber and byproducts (-25.3%), mechanical equipment (-23.8%); pharmaceutical products (-22.3%), fuel and lubricants (-20.5%) and steel products (-20.1%).
In the year, the trade balance deficit stands at US$ 6.288 billion. In the same period of 2014, the balance was negative in US$ 6.256 billion.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
