For the first time since 2000, Brazil is expected to post a trade deficit

Thursday, July 25th 2013 - 05:43 UTC

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Soaring imports and slower export growth has hit the balance of trade

Brazil is this year, for the first time since 2000, is expected to post a balance of trade deficit which, according to the Brazilian Foreign Trade Association (Aeb), and should be in the range of 2 billion dollars.

According to a statement issued on the Aeb website the new figure for the trade deficit is a review of figures published in December 2012 which points to a surplus of 16.6bn dollars.

The deficit, according to Aeb, which is a private non-profit body that represents companies exporting and importing goods and services, is the result of a 5% drop in exports to 230.5 billion and a rise of 4.2% in imports to 232.5 billion.

The drop in prices of raw materials and in foreign sales of Brazilian oil are the reason for the drop in exports according to the association, which added that imports were increasing due to a more favourable exchange rate and a rise in the purchase of oil and its derivatives.

In the first half of the year Brazil posted a trade deficit of 3 billion dollars, which was the worst result for 18 years.

In 2012 Brazil posted a trade surplus of 19.43 billion, which was the lowest surplus for 10 years, with exports of 242.58 billion and imports of 223.14 billion dollars.

Categories: Economy, Brazil, Latin America.

Top Comments

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Captain Poppy
Blame it on the Botox Bitch, let's have a cat fight.
Of course oil exports are down. USA oil demand is dropping every month as their domestic production increases, China's economy is in the tank and struggling to stay afloat as we see their investment in SA come to a screaming halt. All that is left is their brothers in SA and Argentina put up the copper curtain and outlawed imports.
Jul 25th, 2013 - 09:29 am 0
yankeeboy
The cycle has turned against Brazil India and China all 3 are teetering on the brink of recession with nothing coming and nowhere to go. I hope they have not squandered the last decade.
It is so easy for poorly run economies to fall back into their old ways.

China is worrisome, it has spectacular problems with very little cushion to get them through the bad times. The banks are insolvent, HUGE number of Ghost cities, 3 generations of wealth invested in bad property investments, slowing economy and 1000s of riots monthly in the Provinces. It is just going to take a little spark before the East Coast cities are on fire. It takes a lot of $ to feed that many people, let's see how long it takes them to blow through U$2T when the country is under civil unrest.
Jul 25th, 2013 - 12:18 pm 0
ChrisR
I am not at all surprised at these figures but I bet Mantega is.

Dilma needs to do something positive about managing the economy, getting rid of the liar Mantega would be a good start.
Jul 25th, 2013 - 01:40 pm 0

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