São Paulo – Brazil’s trade balance posted a US$ 1.17 billion deficit in October, according to information released by the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade this Monday (3rd). The deficit was a result of US$ 18.3 billion in exports and US$ 19.5 billion in imports. Average daily exports were down 19.7% year-on-year in October and average daily imports were down 15.4%. Bilateral trade, i.e. the sum of imports and exports, stood at US$ 37.8 billion in the month.<\/p>\n
It was the worst result for the month of October since 1998, when the trade deficit was US$ 1.44 billion. The main culprit in the decline of exports was the manufactured goods industry, whose sales dropped by 30.3% to US$ 6.8 billion, mostly due to lower sales of oil rigs, fuel oils, automobiles, aircraft, engines and generators, automobile engines, auto parts, pneumatics, land levelling machines, pumps and compressors, plastic polymers and medicine. <\/p>\n
Basic goods exports were down 15.4% to US$ 8.1 billion, and semi-manufactured goods exports were down 1% to US$ 2.8 billion. Basic goods exports suffered as a result of declining sales of items such as soybean, iron ore, maize, copper ore, tobacco leaves and soy bran; semi-manufactured goods exports dropped as a consequence of reduced sales of crude soybean oil, semi-manufactured gold and raw sugar. <\/p>\n
The only destinations to which Brazilian exports did not decline were Latin America and the Caribbean (Mercosur countries not included), up 9.1% and Western Europe, up 52.5%. Average daily exports were down 25% to Asia, 22% to the Mercosur and 40.4% to the European Union. Year-on-year in October, exports were down 0.3% to the United States, 0.2% to Africa and 8.6% to the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Year-to-date through October, Brazil exported US$ 191.9 billion worth of products and imported the equivalent of US$ 193.8 billion. Bilateral trade amounted to US$ 385.8 billion and a US$ 1.87 billion deficit was recorded. Year-to-date, exports dropped for manufactured and semi-manufactured goods, but increased for basic goods. <\/p>\n
In the 12-month period ended October, the Brazilian trade balance showed a US$ 2.5 billion surplus, as a result of US$ 233.6 billion in exports and US$ 231.1 billion in imports. Bilateral trade in the 12-month period stood at US$ 481 billion. <\/p>\n
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\n