The Brazilian trade balance registered a surplus of $925 million in AprilÂ’s third week, according to the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC).
Article continues below
br>
Last week showed $3.670 billion in exports and $2.745 billion in imports.
According to MDIC, in the third week, exports reached $734 million on average per business day, or 5.5% less than the average until the monthÂ’s second week. In this comparison, exports of basic goods declined 7% to $369.1 million, due to the decline in shipments of soy beans, crude oil, poultry, beef and soy bran.
Exports of semi-finished products declined 16.7% to $86.1 million. In this sector, the products that declined the most were wood pulp, raw sugar, hides and skins, steel and iron semi-finished products and ferro-alloys.
Among finished products, the decline was 0.7% to $259.1 million per day, due to weaker sales of iron and steel flexible pipes, polymers, taps, valves and parts, pneumatics and cast iron tubes.
In the third week, imports increased 8.4% over the average until the monthÂ’s second week.
Per business day, on average, imports reached $549 million, due to the increase in spending with fuels and lubricants, mechanical equipment, organic and inorganic chemicals, organic and inorganic fertilizers and plastics and plastic products.
Until AprilÂ’s third week, exports totaled a daily average of $757.5 million, amount that remained stable over the performance of April 2015, which recorded, per day, $757.8 million.
Meanwhile, imports are weaker until the third week of April: $525.8 million per day, or 28.3% less than the daily average of $733.3 million of last yearÂ’s April.
According to this comparison, imports declined with steel products, auto and auto parts, fuels and lubricants, electric and electronics equipment, plastics and plastic products and precision and optical instruments.
According to data from the MDIC, exports in April reached $8.332 billion, and imports, $5.784 billion.
There is a $2.548 billion surplus in the period. Year-to-date, exports are at $48.905 billion, and imports, $37.969 billion, with a surplus of $10.936 billion. In the same period of last year, exports registered a deficit of $5.657 billion.
Federal tax collection reached BRL 95.779 billion ($26.941 billion) in March, down 6.96% from March 2015, inflation discounted. It was the lowest amount for a March since 2010, as per the Extended National Consumer Price Index (IPCA), the Federal Revenue Service reported.
In Q1, federal tax collection reached BRL 313.014 billion ($88.047 billion), down 8.19% from Q1 2015, inflation discounted. The amount is also the lowest for a Q1 since 2010.
According to the Federal Revenue Service, slumping economic activity is the main culprit behind dwindling revenues this year, including an 11.8% drop in industrial production, a 10.47% decline in goods and services sales, and a 33.62% reduction in imports denominated in US dollars. Total wages paid were down 0.03% in Q1, bearing down on Social Security revenues.
The Leading Economic Index (LEI) for Brazil advanced 0.8% in March, reaching 90.4 points. In February, there was a slightly increase of 0.2% and, in January, a decline of 0.3%.
The index gathers data from eight economic variables to forecast the economyÂ’s trends. The indicator is researched by The Conference Board (TCB), an American consulting company, and the Brazilian Institute of Economics of Fundacao Getulio Vargas (IBRE/FGV) in a partnership. ■