Brazil increases business with its BRIC partners
DCI
The economic crisis and the difficulties faced by the Brazilian exporters are, faster and faster, changing the geography of the destination of the Country exports. This way, the increase of the commercial relations with strategic partners, like Russia, India and China, together with Brazil the BRIC members, allowed a strong inversion in the sign of the Brazilian trade balance with these three countries, going from a US$ 1.781 billion deficit to a US$ 2.757 billion surplus, in the comparison between the first five months of 2008 and this year.
The purchases by Brazil of products from the three countries, according to projections of Pezco Consultoria, a consulting firm, should, in most cases, keep a falling tendency. Until the end of the year, Russia should lose 10% of its exports, whereas China should have a fall of 15% in its sales and India, present a 5% increase in its commerce. In the case of Brazil, according to the survey, the level of exports to the group should remain the same as last year.
The main commercial partnership of Brazil is with China, the nation with the greatest growth in the world and that is currently in first place in the Brazilian bilateral commerce. During the month of May, the bilateral commerce with China amounted to US$ 3.124 billion, whose US$ 996 million balance is favorable to Brazil due to the export of US$ 2.060 billion and import of US$ 1.064 billion. The Chinese position as the main commercial partner of Brazil may influence the Brazilian trade balance more intensely within the next months, once Brazil and China will trade their products with their local currencies. The beginning of the commercial transactions with the use of the Local Currency System (SML, in Portuguese), which rules out the dollar from the commercial transactions, was scheduled for the month of June, on a trial basis, and should be presented in July by the Ministry of the Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (Mdic). The increase of the SML to the other countries of the Bric has been greatly debated during the meetings among the Heads of State of the countries of the group.