|
The surplus registered for Brazil's trade balance for the month of March up to last week already is the greatest in the year, with still few days to go before closing the month.
The surplus was of US$ 3.022 billion favourable towards Brazil, resulting from US$ 7.85 billion in exports and US$ 4.828 billion in imports. The information was released March 28 by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
In January the surplus was of US$ 2.1 billion, in February of US$ 2.7 billion and in March last year, of US$ 2.5 billion.
According to the ministry, there was an increase in 26.5% in the exports daily average in relation to March 2005, and of 15.4% for imports.
According to the government, there was an increase in all products categories (basics, semi-manufactured and manufactured).
In the case of the semi-manufactured products there was an increase in 46.8% in external sales, driven mainly by the shipments of crude sugar, cast iron, semi-manufactured iron and steel products, synthetic rubber, sawed wood, iron alloys and cellulose.
Manufactured products exports increased in 34.4%, influenced by the sales of iron and steel wires used to manufacture cables, wires, screws, nails, springs and others, transmitting and receiving devices, steel plates, tractors, pumps and compressors, cargo vehicles, auto parts, engines for vehicles and cars.
Shipment of basic products, on its turn, increased 2.8% in the month, driven by coffee grain exports, as well as poultry, swine and bovine beef, tobacco in leaves and iron ore.
In the case of imports, there were increases, mainly, in the purchases of automobiles and auto parts (64.3%), iron and steel products (39.6%), fuels and lubricants (33.3%), plastics and plastic products (24.7%), rubber and rubber products (24.4%), optics instruments (22.6%) and mechanic equipments (17.7%).
During the fourth week of March, Brazilian exports yielded US$ 2.035 billion and imports US$ 1.133 billion, which resulted in a surplus of US$ 902 million, the best weekly surplus in the month and second best in the year.
Up to this point, in 2005, Brazil exported the equivalent to US$ 23.050 billion, an increase in 25.6% in comparison to the same period last year.
Imports added up to US$ 15.058 billion, or 19% more than in the same period in 2004. The accumulated trade surplus is of US$ 7.992 billion, against US$ 5.698 billion in the same period last year.
Anba
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose.