Brazil accumulated a surplus in its trade balance of $47.662 million in the first ten months of 2020, the second largest positive balance for the period in its history.
The surplus accumulated between January and October this year exceeded 23.72% that of the first ten months of 2019 ($38,524 million) and is the second largest for the period, second only to 2017 ($58,451 million), according to data released by the Ministry of the Economy.
For the successful result, the sharp fall in imports mainly contributed because, due to the paralysis of activities caused by the COVID pandemic-19, companies significantly reduced their purchases abroad.
Brazil’s trade surplus in October exceeded 114.6% in the same month last year ($2.55 billion) and was the second largest for this month in the country’s history, surpassed only by 2018 ($5,792 million).
According to the Ministry of economy, Brazil sold products abroad in October for $17.855 billion, a slight increase of 0.3% compared to the same month last year, and bought products from other countries for $12,383 million, 20.5% higher than in the same period in 2019.
Most of the fall in imports was attributed to lower demand from processing industries, whose foreign purchases fell by 19.5% compared to the same month last year, and from mining industries, which reduced their external purchases by about 44.6% by the same comparison.
Exports for the month, for their part, improved mainly by a 7.2% increase in sales in the mining industries, mainly iron and oil. This increase made up for the 20.6% decline in exports of agricultural products after the end of soybean harvesting, a grain of which Brazil is the world’s largest producer and supplier.
After closing 2019 with a surplus of $46,035 million in its trade balance, the second largest annual positive result in its history, Brazil may achieve an even greater positive balance this year due to the sharp drop in imports caused by the pandemic.
According to the latest Focus bulletin, a weekly survey with financial institutions published by the Central Bank, market analysts foresees a trade surplus of $58.7 billion this year, slightly higher than expected by the government, which aims for a positive balance of $55 billion at the end of the year.
