Brazil's balance of trade closed out May with a surplus of $2.76 billion.This was a record performance for the month since 2012, when the surplus was $2.96 billion. It is also the best result for the balance of trade this year. The data was released Monday (June 1st) by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.

The balance of exports against imports was negative in January and February, whereas March and April saw $458 million and $491 million surpluses respectively.

The balance in May resulted from $16.76 billion in exports minus $14 billion in imports. Despite the positive figures in May, Brazil is still struggling to reverse its cumulative deficit for the first five months of the year, which stands at $2.3 billion. During this period, Brazil exported $74.7 billion in goods and services but imported $77 billion.

According to the Head of Statistics and Export Support of the Ministry of Development, Industry, and Foreign Trade, Herlon Brandão, lower imports, coupled with an increase in soybean shipments – which typically peak in May – have contributed to this surplus.

He said the cumulative $2.3 billion deficit tends to decrease even further, but added there are no predictions as to when it will be fully reversed.

“The deficit is on the wane, but when the figures will turn positive is something we'll have to wait and see,” he said, noting that soy shipments tend to go down again in June. Soybean faces a depreciation in foreign markets, but the shipped amounts have been growing. In May, for example, the total soybean shipments – 9.3 million tons – was a historical monthly record.

The lower import levels were put down to the economic slowdown and the dollar hike. “Slower economic activity is quite certainly driving down the demand for imports. There are no particular factors that can explain this drop. It's the current economic and foreign exchange scenario,” he said, pointing out that oil imports have dropped.

But even with the positive results being attributed to slowing economic activity, Brandão said the decreasing deficit should be regarded positively because it “contributes favorably toward GDP growth.”

This has also been the best single-month result for the balance of trade in the time series since August 2012.