In the third week of April, the Brazilian trade balance had a surplus of US $ 1.217 billion, resulting from exports of US $ 4.701 billion and imports of US $ 3.484 billion, according to the Ministry of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services (MDIC). In the month, exports totaled US $ 14.504 billion and imports, US $ 9.962 billion, with a positive balance of US $ 4.541 billion. In the accumulated of the year, the country’s foreign sales are US $ 68.871 billion and purchases, US $ 50.381 billion, with a surplus of US $ 18.490 billion.
Week
Exports in the third week (US $ 940.3 million) were 4.1% below the average posted up to the second week (US $ 980.2 million), mainly due to the drop in exports of the three categories of basic products (-6% on the basis of maize in cereals, crude oil, copper ore and beef, chicken and pork), semi-processed products (-5,7% on the basis of raw aluminum, wood in chips or particles, crude soybean oil, manufactured of iron and steel and sawn or split wood) and manufactured products (-0.7% mainly because of taps and valves, wire rods and bars of iron and steel, motors, electric generators and transformers, plastic polymers and passenger cars).
In imports, there was a growth of 7.6%, over the same comparison period (average of the third week, from US $ 696.8 million on average until the second week, of US $ 647.8 million), mainly explained by the increase aircraft and parts, fuels and lubricants, grain and mill industry products, optics and precision instruments, and organic and inorganic chemicals.
Month
In exports, compared to the averages up to the third week of April (US $ 966.9 million) with the average of April last year (US $ 982.2 million), there was a decrease of 1.5%, due to the decrease in sales of manufactured products (-4.5% on the basis of flexible pipes and tubes of iron and steel, hydrocarbons and halogenated derivatives, refined sugar, passenger cars and aluminum oxides and hydroxides) and semi-manufactured products (-0.1% of butter, fat and oil, of cocoa, raw cane sugar, synthetic rubber and artificial rubber, hides and skins, hair, raw soybean oil).
On the other hand, sales of basic products increased (0.6%, mainly due to calcined magnesia and other magnesium oxides, manganese ores and concentrates, live cattle, crude oil and leaf smoke). Compared to March 2018, there was a growth of 1.1%, due to the increase in sales of basic products (6.7%) and a decline in the sales of manufactured products (-4.3%) and semi-manufactured products (-2 , 9%).
In imports, the daily average up to the third week of April (US $ 664.2 million), was 11.5% above the average of April last year (US $ 595.4 million). In this comparison, expenses increased mainly with beverages and alcohol (77.5%), automobiles and parts (39.7%), mechanical equipment (33.4%), optics and precision instruments (22%) and chemicals organic and inorganic (14.1%). In relation to last March, there was growth of 1%, due to increases in cereals and products from the milling industry (31.2%), rubber and works (12.2%), automobiles and parts (9.9%), equipment mechanics (8.5%) and plastics and works (8%).