Brazil posted a net foreign exchange inflow of US$ 3.1 billion in May, central bank figures showed on Wednesday, its first net inflow since July last year.

The figures showed a surplus of almost US$ 4 billion from trade-related FX contracts and an outflow of US$ 882 million from financial FX contracts, resulting in the biggest monthly inflow since February last year.

So far this year, however, Brazil has posted a net FX outflow of US$ 9.7 billion, compared to a US$ 3.2 billion net inflow in the same period last year.

In the eight months of outflows from August last year through April, a net US$ 55.3 billion flowed out of Brazil.

The figures for May show that the central bank sold a net US$ 520 million of currency reserves, and commercial banks reduced their net short dollar cash position to US$ 25.5 billion, the lowest in six months.

Taking into account its currency market activity in May, including swaps and repurchase operations, the central bank’s net FX position fell to US$ 299.3 billion from US$ 303.4 billion in April, the lowest since at least January 2018.