MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil with a current account surplus in April, first since 2009

“This result took us a little by surprise. We were aiming for this but the surplus came a little earlier than expected”, Tulio Maciel said.

Brazil recorded a public current account surplus of US$412 million in April, the first positive result since 2009. Brazil's central bank's chief economist, Tulio Maciel, on Tuesday said the result was way better than anticipated.

 “This result took us a little by surprise. We were aiming for this but the surplus came a little earlier than expected. Our expectation had been for a deficit of $1 billion in April,” Maciel said.

The latest result contrasted with April 2015, when the public current account showed a deficit of US$6 billion.

A depreciation of the Brazilian currency real and a deep recession have curbed demand for imports and supported exports in Latin America's largest economy. In the first four months of the year, the total deficit reached US$7 billion.

In the past 12 months, the deficit climbed to a cumulative US$34 billion, or 1.97% of GDP. Before April's results were known, the Central Bank projected a total deficit of US $25 billion in 2016.