In August, the Brazilian trade balance registered a record surplus, with US$6.609 billion more exported than imported. This is the best result for the month since the beginning of the historical series in 1989. With the August result, the trade balance accumulates a surplus of US$36.594 billion in the first eight months of the year. This is the third-best result in the historical series for the period. The cumulative export total for the first eight months of 2020 totaled US$138.633 billion, a decrease of 6.6% in comparison with year-ago levels. Imports totaled US$102.039 billion, a decrease of 25.1% by the same criterion. Among the products that drove the growth of agricultural exports in August, the highlights were soybeans, whose value sold increased by US$443.3 million in relation to the same month last year, and raw cotton, with an increase of US$80.9 million in the same comparison. According to the Focus bulletin, a weekly survey of financial institutions released by the Central Bank, market analysts predict a US$55 billion surplus for this year. In July, the Ministry of Economy updated the positive balance estimate to US$ 55.4 billion.
Source: Agência Brasil / Datamar News