Brazil announces lowest trade surplus since 2015

The Foreign Trade Secretariat (Secex) of the Ministry of Economy released on Thursday, January 2, the result of the 2019 Brazilian trade balance, which showed a surplus of US $ 46.674 billion, a 20.5% decrease compared to the same period of 2018.

The 2019 balance is the lowest since 2015, which registered $ 19.512 billion. In 2019 both exports and imports decreased. Exports reached US $ 224.018 billion, down 7.5% compared to the previous year – when they totaled US $ 239.264 billion. Imports totaled US $ 177.344 billion, down 3.3% compared to 2018 (US $ 181.231 billion).

According to the country’s foreign trade secretary Lucas Ferraz, the main causes were the deepening economic crisis in Argentina, a major buyer of Brazilian manufactured goods, and the swine crisis in China, which reduced demand for soybeans, Brazil’s main export.

Main Brazilian products exported in 2019:

1) Soybeans
2) Crude oil
3) Iron Ore
4) Cellulose
5) Corn
6) Beef
7) Chicken
8) Soybean meal
9) Coffee Beans
10) Raw sugar
11) Semi-manufactured iron and steel

Main buyers of Brazilian products:

1) China, Hong Kong and Macau: US $ 65.389 billion;
2) United States: US $ 29.556 billion;
3) Netherlands: US $ 10,100 billion;
4) Argentina: US $ 9.714 billion;
5) Japan: $ 5.410 billion.

The following graph shows Brazil’s balance of trade from 2014 to 2019:

Source: MDIC

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