São Paulo – The Brazilian trade balance has reached a surplus of USD 1.728 billion in December’s first three weeks, according to data made public by the Ministry of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services (MDIC) this Monday (19).
In the month, exports totaled USD 8.785 billion, while imports totalled USD 7.057 billion. Last week, the third of the month, trade surplus reached USD 864 million, with USD 3.969 billion in exports and USD 3.105 billion in imports.
In the year, exports totaled USD 178.1 billion, while imports reached USD 133.1 billion, resulting in a USD 45 billion surplus.
On average, exports in the first three weeks of December dropped 4% in a comparison of 2016 (USD 732.1 million per business day) with the same period of 2015 (USD 762.9 million per business day). Exports of basic goods declined 9.8%, especially of maize grain, crude oil, soybean, beef and poultry, while exports of finished products fell 2.2%, especially aluminum oxides and hydroxides, pumps and compressors, electric engines and generators and aircraft.
On the other hand, sales of semi-finished products climbed 3.5% in the period, with the highlights being semi-finished gold, ferroalloy, sawn timber, raw sugar and wood pulp.
The daily average of imports surged 22.7% until December’s third week if compared to the same period of 2015, reaching USD 588 million per business day. According to the MDIC, purchases went up with electronic equipment, auto and auto parts, precision and optical instruments, mechanical and pharmaceutical equipment.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
