The Brazilian trade balance registered a surplus of US $ 2.019 billion in the first week of December 2018, which had five working days, according to the Ministry of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services (MDIC). The balance is the result of exports in the amount of US $ 5.677 billion and imports of US $ 3.649 billion. In the year, exports totaled US $ 225.635 billion and imports, US $ 171.957 billion, with a surplus of US $ 53.677 billion.
In exports, compared to the first week of December 2018 (US $ 1.1 billion) compared to December 2017 (US $ 879.8 million), there was an increase of 28.8%, due to the increase in sales of the three categories of products: basic (46.1%, mainly soybeans, soybean meal, raw cotton, corn in grain and coffee beans), semimanufactured products (33.3%, mainly pulp, ferroalloys , raw cast iron, raw cane sugar and sawn or split wood) and manufactured (17.2% on airplanes, paper for the production of toilet paper, tissue or towel, frozen orange juice, non-frozen orange juice and vegetables prepared or preserved in acetic acid).
In comparison with November 2018, there was a growth of 8.3%, due to the increase in sales of semimanufactured products (32.9%, from US $ 131.7 million to US $ 174.9 million), basic (8, 3%, from US $ 490.7 million to US $ 531.5 million) and manufactured goods (0.9%, from US $ 423.3 million to US $ 427 million).
In imports, the daily average until the first week of December 2018 (US $ 729.7 million) was 15.9% above the average of December 2017 (US $ 629.9 million). In this comparison, expenses increased mainly with fertilizers (120.2%), beverages and alcohol (74.2%), aluminum and its works (59.2%), milk and derivatives (58.6%), and steelmakers (52%). Compared with November 2018, there was a decrease of 13.4% due to the decrease in purchases of motor vehicles and parts (-20.9%), fuels and lubricants (-12.1%), optical and precision medical instruments (- 9.4%), plastics and works (-8.4%) and electrical and electronic equipment (-3.1%).
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.