Brazilian trade balance registers a US$ 6.2 billion surplus in September

In September, the Brazilian trade balance registered a record surplus. Last month, the country exported US$ 6.2 billion more than it imported, the best result for the month since the beginning of the historical series, in 1989.

Both exports and imports fell last month. In September, the country sold US$ 18.5 billion abroad, down 9.1% according to the daily average criterion in relation to the same month last year. Imports, however, fell further, totaling US$ 12.3 billion, a reduction of 25.5% also by the daily average.

With the September result, the trade balance accumulates a surplus of US$ 42.4 billion in the first nine months of the year. This is the second-highest result of the historical series for the period, losing only to the period from January to September 2017 (which registered a surplus of US $ 53.3 billion).

Accumulated exports for the first 9 months of 2020 totaled US$ 156.8 billion, a decrease of 7% in comparison with the daily averages for the same period in 2019. Imports totaled US$ 114.3 billion, a decrease of 14% by the same criterion.

Most of the increase in the balance in September is explained by the fall in imports from the manufacturing industry, which decreased US$ 181.4 million by the daily average in relation to the same month last year, and from the extractive industry, the imports of which shrank US$ 18.32 million. On the export side, sales by the manufacturing industry fell by US$ 108 million. In contrast, sales from the extractive industry increased by US$ 19.7 million, and sales from agriculture and livestock increased by US$ 5.4 million in the same comparison.

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Among the products that drove the growth of agricultural exports in September, the highlights were non-roasted coffee, whose value sold increased by US$ 2.5 million in the daily average criterion in relation to the same month last year, and live animals, with an increase of US$ 1.3 million in the same comparison.

In the extractive industry, iron ore exports rose, increased by US$ 48.4 million in relation to September last year by the daily average, motivated both by the increase in demand and by the increase in the international price.

Exports of crude petroleum oils, however, continue to fall and ended last month down US$ 30 million. In this case, the drop was due to both the drop in the international price and the decreased demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the manufacturing industry, the biggest declines were recorded in oil platforms (US$ -71.3 million for the daily average), petroleum fuel oils (US$ -11.5 million), and tobacco (US$ -8.6 million).

In addition to the crisis in Argentina, the main destination for Brazilian industrial sales, the fictitious export of an oil platform that occurred in September last year, which was not repeated this year, impacted the result. In this type of operation, classified as within international trade rules, an oil company registers a platform at a subsidiary abroad, without the equipment leaving the country.

Source: Agência Brasil

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