Brazilian trade balance hits record $53.2 billion surplus
Staff Writer |
Brazilian trade balance has hit a new record high, reaching a $53.2 billion surplus from January to September.
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The amount is 47.3% higher than the one reached at the same time last year and already stronger than the result for the entirety of 2016 ($47.7 billion).
The surplus for September alone reached $5.178 billion, the best result for the month since the government began collecting data for this time series in 1989. The numbers were released on Monday (2 October) by the Ministry of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services.
The record surplus is the result of $164.6 billion in exports and $111.3 billion in imports, up 18.7% and 14.4% (respectively) compared with the same period of 2016.
All major export categories had increased sales in year-to-date terms: basic goods sales rose by 26.9%, semimanufactured goods by 13.7% and manufactured goods by 11.2%.
The increase in basic good exports is explained chiefly by higher sales of crude oil, iron ore, copper ore, soybeans, pork, beef, poultry and coffee beans.
For semimanufactured goods, the largest increases were seen in iron and steel, cast iron, lumber, raw sugar, iron alloys, pulp and bulk soybean oil.
Finally, growth in the manufactured products group is explained by higher shipments of fuel oils, passenger cars, tractors, passenger vehicles, earthmoving machinery, cargo vehicles, flat-rolled products, refined sugar, auto parts, aluminium oxides and hydroxides, footwear, tires, car motors and pumps and compressors.
Imports were driven by more purchase of fuels and lubricants and intermediate and consumer goods, especially gasoline, industrial inputs, automobiles, non-industrial transportation equipment and others.
Resumption of economic growth, favourable exchange rates, high confidence in the economy and a more open foreign policy are some of the factors driving the positive performance in Brazilian foreign trade.
This year, the trade balance - i.e. the sum of all commercial exchanges between Brazil and the world - has been hitting successive records, with strong growth in both exports and imports.
The forecast for the full year is that the 2017 trade balance surplus will exceed $60 billion, far surpassing last year's record of $47.7 billion. ■