Trade balance has US$ 2.2 billion surplus in the year and US$ 1 billion in the month
Valor Econômico 03/24/2009
The Brazilian balance of trade registered a US$ 1.04 billion surplus in the first three weeks of March. The number is the difference between the exports of US$ 7.99 billion and imports of US$ 6.95 billion registered in the period. As indicated by the daily average, the exports are 15.5% below the verified in the entire month of March of last year and at the same level registered in February 2009. The imports, on their turn, showed a 20.3% retraction compared to 2008 and an increase of 6.6% in comparison with last month. The commercial balance in the month presents a 29.3% fall in relation to February and an increase of 40.5% compared to the same period of last year. In the third week of March (from 16 to 22), the Brazilian exports amounted to US$ 2.793 billion (daily average of US$ 558.6 million) and the imports, US$ 2.174 billion (daily average of US$ 434.8 million), which assured a US$ 619 million surplus). Year to date, exports have accumulated US$ 27.360 billion, with a daily average of US$ 506.7 million. Such performance was 20.7% below the registered in the same period of last year (US$ 639 million). The imports amounted to US$ 25.076 billion, with a daily average performance of US$ 464.4 million, a value 22.2% below that of the same period of 2008 (US$ 596.7 million). The trade surplus reached US$ 2.284 billion. According to the daily average criteria, there was no variation in relation to the performance seen in the same period of 2008.