Brazil’s October trade surplus is below expectations at US$ 5.5 billion

On Tuesday, November 3, the Ministry of Economy released the result of the Brazilian balance of trade balance for the month of October, recording a US$ 5.5 billion surplus, lower than market expectations. According to the agency, the result was again leveraged by the significant retraction in imports. The market expectation was for a US$ 6.1 billion surplus.

Although the positive balance more than doubled in comparison with the same month last year, when it was US$ 2.5 billion, it was still below the US$ 5.8 billion surplus recorded in October 2018.

Most of the increase in the October balance of trade is explained by the fall in imports from the manufacturing industry, which fell by US$ 140.67 million by the daily average in relation to the same month last year; and from decreased imports from the extractive industry, whose purchases from abroad shrank US$ 15.16 million.

In terms of exports, the end of the grain harvest caused agricultural exports to fall by US$ 36.93 million by the daily average in relation to October last year. In contrast, extractive industry sales rose US$ 14.89 million, and manufacturing industry exports – which had been declining steadily – rose $ 23.38 million in the same comparison period.

With the result of last month, the balance of trade accumulates a surplus of US$ 47.66 billion from January to October. This is the second-best result of the historical series for the period, losing only to the period from January to October 2017 (which recorded a surplus of US $ 58.45 billion).

Year-to-date exports totaled US$ 174.38 billion, a decrease of 6.5% in comparison with the same period of 2019 by the daily average. Imports totaled US$ 126.712 billion, a decrease of 14.7% by the same criteria.

Sources: Reuters and Agência Brasil

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