Booming Brazil’s foreign trade reaches global record GDP level

Brazil’s trade flows, including exports and imports, reached 39% of GDP (gross domestic product) in 2021.

This is the highest percentage in the World Bank’s historical series, which began in 1960.

Previous record holder China reached 35% of GDP in 2020, the latest available comparative data. In Brazil, the figure was 33%.

China’s GDP and foreign trade volume are much larger in absolute terms than Brazil’s.

Until the mid-1970s, China’s trade flow was less than 10% of its GDP. In Brazil, the share was twice as high in some years.

In 1985, however, the Asian country reached 21%. It overtook Brazil, which had 20%.

China’s foreign trade boom continued until it reached 64% of GDP in 2006. Then it declined because the country’s domestic market grew much faster.

The cumulative trade balance under the conservative government of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) could reach US$1 trillion by the end of the year.

Since 2019, it has stood at US$187 billion (R$956 billion). The August trade balance results will be released on Thursday (Sep.1).

Brazil’s foreign trade increased sharply during the pandemic.

Only with respect to China does the surplus already accumulated by the Bolsonaro government surpass all governments since 2002.

Brazilian foreign trade reached 2% of world trade in the first quarter of this year. That may not seem like much, but it is about double what it has been since the 1960s.

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