Brazil Trade Balance Surplus Reaches US$ 22 Billion. Imports Grow 26%

In the second week of July (from the 9th until the 15th), the Brazilian trade balance has recorded a surplus of US$ 779 million. Foreign sales from Brazil reached US$ 2.938 billion, and foreign purchases totaled US$ 2.159 billion, according to figures disclosed July 16 by the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.

With those results, the accumulated surplus for July rose to US$ 1.706 billion in ten business days. The accumulated surplus for the year, in 134 business days, has increased to US$ 22.368 billion, which is practically half the amount estimated by financial market analysts for the entire year (US$ 43 billion), as published in the Focus bulletin of the Brazilian Central Bank.

In a comparison between July of this year and the same month of last year, there has been a 2.7% decrease in the export rate per business day. Using the same basis for comparison, on the other hand, imports have increased by 21.3%.

In the accumulated result for the year, imports show significant improvement as well. Comparing the period from January until July 2007 (up until the second week) with the same period of 2006, exports increased by 17.1%, whereas imports grew by 25.8%.

Anba