São Paulo – The Brazilian balance of trade recorded a US$ 976 million surplus in the first week of May. Exports fetched US$ 4.408 billion, while imports amounted to US$ 3.432 billion. The net result is the best to date this year. The data was released this Monday (11th) by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
Daily exports averaged US$ 881.6 million in the week, up 16.3% from the daily average in April. The performance was driven by stronger sales of semi-finished goods (23.3%), basic goods (23.2%) and finished goods (8.4%).
The result is down 10.8% from May 2014, when exports averaged US$ 988.2 million a day, due to slower basic goods sales (-14.2%), especially soy bran, iron ore, coffee beans, beef and poultry and soybean. Finished goods exports were down 6.2%, primarily due to aircraft, pumps and compressors, motors and generators, oil fuel, autos and auto parts, aluminum oxides and hydroxides, and land leveling machinery.
In the first week of May 2015, imports averaged US$ 686.4 million per day, down 6.4% from the average in April. Imports were also down 28.1% from May 2014, when the daily average was US$ 988.2 million.
Year-on-year in May, imports declined the most for fertilizers (56%), autos and auto parts (35.8%), mechanical equipment (31.4%), iron and steel (30.7%) and fuels and lubricants (29.8%).
Year-to-date through the first week of May, exports from Brazil reached US$ 62.339 billion and imports to Brazil reached US$ 66.429 billion, resulting in a US$ 4.090 billion trade deficit.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
