BRASILIA: Brazil’s trade balance posted a surplus of $491 million in April, although over the first four months of this year the country racked up a trade deficit of $5.066 billion, the government reported.
The result for April was 3 percent lower than for the same month last year and slightly higher than the surplus in March which tallied $458 million.
Monthly exports fell 23.2 percent compared with April 2014 and 1.8 percent compared with March, coming in at $15.156 billion, according to figures compiled by the Development, Industry and Foreign Trade Ministry.
Just like exports, imports fell a similar 23.7 percent compared with April last year and totaled $14.665 billion.
Sales to China, the main destination for Brazilian products, totaled $3.4 billion, declining 23.4 percent compared with April 2014, a situation due primarily to fewer Chinese purchases of soybeans, iron ore, cellulose and chicken.
In the United States, Brazil’s second-biggest trade partner, sales fell by 19.2 percent to $1.969 billion, due to the drop in petroleum sales, along with semimanufactured products of iron and steel, auto parts, engines, ethanol, soybeans, orange juice, iron ore and other products.
Sales to neighboring Argentina, Brazil’s third-largest export market, totaled $1.103 billion in April, a decline of 21.1 percent attributed to a drop in requests for automobiles, auto parts, other vehicles, engines and iron ore, among other items.
In 2014, Brazil’s trade balance experienced its first deficit in 14 years, closing $3.93 billion in the red.
