RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Brazilian trade balance recorded a positive balance of US$6.702 billion in April, the best result for the month since 2017, despite reductions in both exports and imports.
The data was released on Monday, May 4th, by the Foreign Trade Secretariat of the Ministry of Economy.
The surplus fell close to the Broadcast Projections estimates, which averaged a surplus of between US$3.620 billion and US$6.900 billion. The median was US$6.3 billion.
The April balance was well above that recorded in the same month last year, when the result was positive at US$5.6 billion. In the fifth week of April alone, the balance recorded a US$1.768 billion surplus.
The accumulated balance for the year to date stood at US$12.264 billion, less than the US$14.7 billion recorded in the same period in 2019. Brazil is exporting less and also buying less from other countries.
Last month, exports totaled US$18.3 billion, a drop of 0.3 percent in the daily average against April 2019. Imports reached US$11.6 billion, a 10.5 percent drop in the same comparison.
2020 projection
The Brazilian government expects a US$46.6 billion surplus in the trade balance in 2020.
The predicted balance will be the result of US$199.8 billion in exports and US$153.2 billion in imports. Both these results are lower than in 2019, indicating an expected reduction in the trade flow with the rest of the world.
Last year, the balance was positive at US$48.0 billion, with a trade flow (sum of exports and imports) of US$402.7 billion. This year, this flow is expected to stand at US 353.0 billion.
Source: Estadão Conteúdo