Brazil’s trade balance registered a record surplus of US$11.4 billion in May

By Gabriel Benevides

Brazil’s trade balance registered a surplus of US$11.4 billion in May.

This was the highest value of the historical series, which began in 1989, considering all the year’s months.

The Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce, and Services released the figures on Thursday (June 1, 2023).

The result represents a 129.5% increase compared to May 2022, when the balance was US$ 5 billion.

The trade balance is the difference between exports and imports.

When the financial volume of sales abroad exceeds purchases, the country registers a surplus.

The last record was in March 2023, when the balance was US$10.96 billion.

The trade surplus occurs when exports exceed the country’s imports.

This month’s balance is above the market median of US$9.965 billion.

In May, exports totaled US$ 33.1 billion, and imports US$ 21.7 billion.

This represents an 11.6% increase in exports and a 12.1% drop in imports from the same period in 2022.

YEAR-TO-DATE

The accumulated balance in 2023 was US$ 35.3 billion, 39.1% higher than in 2022, when it reached US$ 25.4 billion.

There were US$ 136.4 billion in exports and US$ 101.1 billion in imports.

Here is the performance of Brazilian exports in the year-to-date per sector of economic activity:

• agriculture and cattle-raising: 7.5%;
• transformation industry: 2.9%;
• extractive industry: 1.1%.

Here are the imports by economic activity:

• capital goods: 12.9%;
• intermediate goods: -8,5%;
• consumer goods: 20.4%;
• fuels: -15,7%.

With information from Poder360

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