MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil's trade surplus reaches US$ 47,6 billion in ten months

In terms of exports, the end of the grain harvest caused agricultural exports to fall a daily average of US$ 36.93 million compared to October last year

The Brazilian Ministry of Economy released the result of the country's October trade balance, US$ 5.5 billion surplus, but lower than market expectations. The result was again leveraged by the significant retraction in imports, while market expectations were forecasting 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 surplus is explained by the fall in imports from the manufacturing industry, which fell by US$ 140.67 million on a 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 a daily average of US$ 36.93 million compared to October last year. In contrast, extractive industry sales rose US$ 14.89 million, and manufacturing industry exports – which had been declining steadily – rose US$ 23.38 million in the same 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, only surpassed by January/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.