With Brazilian products gaining momentum abroad, the April trade balance has hit a record for the month. Exports surpassed imports by US$ 6.969 billion in April, resulting in an unprecedented accumulated trade balance of US$ 21.387 billion in year-to-date terms.

The figures, released this Tuesday (2 April) by the Ministry of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services, show strong daily average increases for both exports and imports.

Daily average exports in March were 27.8% higher than in the same period of last year, influenced by increases of 29.2% for commodities, 27.5% for semi- manufactured goods and 25.7% for manufactured products.

Commodity exports were mostly influenced by strong sales of iron ore (+87.6%), crude oil (+58.6%), pork (+34.4%) and soy beans (+7%).

Semi-manufactured goods also saw strong highs. The largest increase was in sales of soybean oil (173.9%), followed by shipments of iron and steel (55.5%), cast iron (46.1%) and raw sugar (44.4%).

Imports, on the other hand, grew by 13.3% compared to the same month of last year, driven by increased purchases of fuels and lubricants (28.5%), intermediate goods (16.5%) and consumer goods (6.3%).

Strong year

The Brazilian trade balance reached the highest accumulated surplus for the first four months of the year in history, at US$ 21.387 billion. Projections by both the financial market and the federal government point to foreign trade transactions exceeding US$ 50 billion in 2017.