The surplus accumulated in the Brazilian trade balance in the last 12 months, until January 2020, is US$ 43.2 billion. Exports in the period totaled US$ 220.3 billion. Imports, US$ 177.1 billion.
Preliminary comparative data indicate that the Brazilian trade surplus, accumulated in the last 12 months, is one of the ten largest in the world, and the seventh largest among the G20 economies, despite global external demand that remains at a weakened pace.
The month of January 2020 presents a trade flow of US$ 30.6 billion. According to trade balance data released this Monday (03) by the Foreign Trade Secretariat of the Ministry of Economy (Secex/ME), there was a trade deficit of US$ 1.7 billion in the month, caused, to a large extent, by the import of oil platform, worth US$ 2 billion.
Total exports in January 2020, which totaled US$ 14.4 billion, showed a reduction in relation to January 2019, as there was a decline in sales of: oil platforms (-US$ 1.3 billion), crude oil (-US$ 592 million), cellulose (-US$ 445 million), corn (-US$ 270 million) and soybeans (-US$ 255 million).
In the last 12 months, the Brazilian trade flow showed a decline of 7.3%, resulting from factors such as: (1) structural adjustments in the commercial relationship between the largest economies in the world, with an increase in global uncertainty and adverse developments in world GDP growth and in international trade. (2) On the domestic front, there is an economy in the process of recovery, with clear repercussions on the contours of the country's trade balance. (3) The challenges facing the Argentine economy, the main destination for Brazilian exports of manufactured goods and Brazil's third largest trading partner. (4) Disease that affected the pig herd in China, the main destination for our exports.
In the specific case of January 2020, according to Secex's Undersecretary of Foreign Trade Intelligence and Statistics, Herlon Brandão, foreign sales showed a reduction motivated by an excessively high comparison base with January 2019. In the first month of last year , there was a large export operation from an oil platform and a historic record for cellulose exports (worth US$ 1 billion). Furthermore, the weakened external demand has compressed the international prices of goods and there was a drop in the volume of grains shipped due to the delay in the harvest and greater internal demand.
Regarding imports, which totaled US$16.1 billion in January, there was a drop of 6.3% in merchandise prices, reflecting the global slowdown. However, the volume of external purchases expanded by 4.5%, maintaining the growth trend already observed in 2019. As for economic categories, there was a drop in the value of the acquisition of intermediate goods, by 3.4%, and fuels, by US$ 15.3%.
On the other hand, purchases of capital goods increased, by 6.6%, and consumer goods, by 6.9%. The increase in imports of capital goods and consumer goods reflects the ongoing economic recovery process, driven mainly by the increase in domestic demand, with positive impacts on imported volumes. The undersecretary also adds that the trade deficit in January was a one-off and should not be a trend for the year.
Source: DATA
