01/13/2009 09h05
Import rhythm surprises specialists
Valor Econômico - 01/13/2009
The import of important products in the Brazilian foreign trade keeps an expressive rhythm of high in the first ten days of the year, as reported yesterday by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade. Even though the period and the volume of operations are still very small to indicate trends, they called the attention of specialists, who are searching for indications on one of the greatest economic uncertainties of the country this year: the behavior of the imports, that had been growing quickly, but will face, in 2009, a fall in prices and in the domestic demand for products. In the first two weeks of January, with six business days, imports exceeded exports by US$ 12 million, a little deficit the government attributed to the purchase of an airplane, in the amount of US$ 150 million. Without that operation, the trade balance would have registered a surplus of US$ 138 million, evaluates the Secretariat of Foreign Trade. Due to the purchase, the imports of "airplanes and parts" jumped from US$ 9 million daily in January, 2008, to US$ 37.5 million daily in the first days of the year, an increase of 315%. Other important items also had a significant increase. The import of steel products increased nearly 25% when comparing to the daily averages of the beginning of the year (US$ 23 million) to those of January/2008. The purchases of milk also increased 115% and those of beverages and alcohol, 55%, but, in these items, the daily average of imports is still very small, way below US$ 2 million. The annual purchases of milk and dairy products exceeded US$ 250 million. "Importation is still the great doubt of 2009", remarks one of the main analysts of the sector, the vice-president of the Brazilian Foreign Trade Association, José Augusto de Castro, who says it is too early to make forecasts. He confesses that he was surprised by the fall of 11.9% in the daily average of the total of imports in this beginning of the year. "I thought it would be stronger."
