In the second week of December 2018, the Brazilian trade balance registered a surplus of US $ 918 million, resulting from exports of US $ 4.564 billion and imports of US $ 3.645 billion, according to the Ministry of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services ). In the month, exports totaled US $ 10.101 billion and imports, US $ 7.294 billion, with a positive balance of US $ 2.807 billion. In the year, exports totaled US $ 230.068 billion and imports, US $ 175.603 billion, with a surplus of US $ 54.466 billion.
Second-week exports averaged $ 912.7 million, down 17.6% from the $ 1.107 billion average in the first week, due to the drop in exports of the three product categories: manufactured goods (-24, 7%, mainly due to the drop in sales of airplanes, frozen orange juice, pumps, compressors and fans, prepared vegetables, non-frozen orange juice, gasoline); semi-manufactured products (-24.1% by reason of cellulose, raw sugar, cast iron, semi-manufactured gold, sawn or chipped wood, ferro-alloys) and (-10%, on account of soybean meal, raw cotton, copper ore, crude oil, chicken meat, corn in grain).
On the import side, the average for the second week (US $ 729.1 million) was 0.7% lower than the average for the first week (US $ 729.8 million), which was mainly caused by the decrease in the expenses with fertilizers and fertilizers, electrical and electronic equipment, mechanical equipment, steel and aluminum and works.
Monthly Review
In exports, compared to the second half of December 2018 (US $ 1,010 billion) compared to December 2017 (US $ 879.8 million), there was a growth of 14.8%, due to the increase in sales of (37.9% from US $ 363.7 million to US $ 501.6 million) and semimanufactured products (14.5%, from US $ 131.2 million to US $ 150.3 million). On the other hand, sales of manufactured goods fell (-1.7%, from US $ 364.1 million to US $ 358.1 million). Compared to November 2018, there was a 3.4% drop, due to the drop in sales of manufactured products (-15.4%, from US $ 423.3 million to US $ 358.1 million), while sales increased of semimanufactured products (14.2%, from US $ 131.7 million to US $ 150.3 million) and basic products (2.2%, from US $ 490.8 million to US $ 501.6 million).
In imports, the daily average up to the second week of December 2018 (US $ 729.4 million) was 15.8% higher than the average of December 2017 (US $ 629.9 million). In this comparison, expenditures increased mainly with fertilizers (66.2%), organic and inorganic chemicals (40.1%), iron and steel (33.5%), fuels and lubricants (19.3%) and plastics and works (17.6%). Compared with November 2018, there was a fall of 13.5%, due to the decrease in purchases of motor vehicles and parts (-22.9%), rubber and works (-12.3%), electrical and electronic equipment (-10, 1%), plastics and works (-9.3%) and mechanical equipment (-4%).
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.