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After a weak performance in the previous week, caused, partially, by a strike by Revenue Service technicians, the Brazilian trade balance registered its all time best surplus for a full week and also broke a monthly record in July.
The trade balance (exports minus imports) reached the historic figure of US$ 1.970 billion in the period from July 25 to 29, with a daily balance of US$ 394 million, greater, incidentally, than the result for the whole week of July 18 to 22, which totalled US$ 343 million.
The general trade balance figures in July were disclosed Monday, August 1st, by Brazil's Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
The trade balance surplus in the month reached US$ 5.011 billion, the equivalent to growth of 24.34% in the month, or US$ 981 million more than the June performance, when it reached US$ 4.030 billion.
In the year, the trade balance has reached US$ 24.678 billion, with growth of 33.62% in relation to the US$ 18.469 billion in the same period last year.
In the last week of June exports totalled US$ 3.305 billion, with expansion of 65.16% in comparison to the previous week, and imports totalled US$ 1.335 billion, with a drop of 19.48% in the same period.
In the month, foreign sales reached US$ 11.061 billion and already total US$ 64.736 in the first 145 working days of this year, representing an increase of 23.8% in relation to exports in the same period last year. Imports, which reached US$ 6.050 billion in the month, totalled US$ 40.060 billion in the year, with an increase of 18.4%.
The balance accumulated in the 12 months ending in July reached US$ 39.875 billion, over the forecasts of the Focus bulletin, distributed this Monday by the Central Bank, whose forecast is US$ 37 billion for 2005.
This the best result Brazil has ever had for a 12-month period. The previous record was US$ 30.809 million for the August 2004 - July 2004 period.
In the same space of time, exports totalled US$ 108.914 billion and are reaching the government forecast of sales of US$ 112 billion in the year.
Agência Brasil
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