São Paulo – Brazil registered a trade surplus in January’s second week. According to data made available by the Ministry of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services (MDIC) this Monday (16), foreign sales totaled USD 2.919 billion, while imports totaled USD 2.799 billion, resulting in a surplus of USD 120 million.
In the year’s first two weeks, exports reached USD 5.939 billion, with foreign purchases totaling USD 5.598 billion, resulting in a USD 341 million surplus. Per business day, on average, exports reached USD 593.9 million, with imports reaching USD 559.9 million, up 5.7% and 8.5% in comparison to January of last year, respectively.
In the comparison with the first week, average exports slid 3.3% due to a decline of 34.7% in foreign sales of semi-finished products such as raw sugar, wood pulp, semi-finished gold products, ferro-alloys and pig iron; and of 3.1% in foreign sales of finished products such as iron and steel flat-rolled products, passenger vehicles, non-frozen orange juice, cargo vehicles, hydrocarbons and halogenated derivatives.
Exports of basic goods, in turn, went up 12.8%, driven by crude oil, coffee beans, soy beans, iron ore and wheat grains.
According to the MDIC, imports remained stable in the first and second weeks of January, with the highlight being the increase in purchases of electronic, mechanic and steelwork equipment, and the decline in purchases of organic and inorganic fertilizers, fuel and lubricants and cereals and milling industry products.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani