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Brazilian exports added up to US$ 3.01 billion in the first five working days of September, while imports reached US$ 2.19 billion. With this, the trade balance surplus in the month reaches US$ 821 million and the year's accumulated surplus increases to US$ 30.45 billion, with an increase in 2.55% in relation to last year.
The figures were released by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade. According to the report, sales of Brazilian products abroad added up to US$ 91.17 billion in the year, against imports worth US$ 60.72 billion. Exports increased 15.38%, but imports increased at a stronger rhythm, of 23.09%. In spite of the expected increase in the purchase of foreign products, the trade balance surplus is at a level above expectations, with the possibility of repeating the record surplus registered last year, of US$ 44.76 billion, or coming quite close to that. A research disclosed Monday, September 11, by the Brazilian Central Bank informs that the market and financial institutions analysts, consulted last Friday, increased from US$ 42 billion to US$ 42.8 billion the forecast for the year's trade balance. Agribusiness Agriculture and livestock is the third sector that generates most jobs in Brazil, losing only to the services area in the transformation industry. In the last seven months, the activity generated 219,329 formal registered jobs in Brazil. The figure is the result of the total number of admissions minus the number of redundancies. The total number of people hired, from January to July, not counting redundancies, already adds up to 704,875 in the agricultural and livestock sector. The information is from the General Records Office for Employment and Unemployment (Caged), complied with information from the Ministry of Work and Employment. Record Cattle Beef Brazilian exports of cattle beef totaled US$ 403.26 million in August, which represented an increase of 18% when compared to the same month last year. According to figures disclosed Monday, September 11, by the Brazilian Beef Industry and Exporters Association (Abiec), the value is a new record and is well above the best month for the sector, July 2006, when revenues totaled US$ 355 million. According to the Abiec, the increase in the price of the product on the foreign market is the main factor for the increase in foreign trade revenues in 2006. Shipment totaled 248,290 tons of cattle beef in August, an increase of 6.7% when compared to the same month in 2005. From January to August, Brazilian exports of cattle beef generated US$ 2.4 billion, which means an increase of 15.93% when compared to the same period in 2005. The volume exported, in turn, grew 3% when comparing the same periods. In the first eight months of 2006, the volume of cattle beef shipped was 1.54 million tons against 1.49 million tons in the same period last year. The main market for raw cattle beef in the first eight months of the year was Russia, which imported US$ 319.45 million and 209,630 tons. In second place came Egypt, with US$ 276.39 million and 222,000 tons, followed by the Netherlands, Italy, the United Kingdom and Algeria. Other Arab destinations for the Brazilian product are Saudi Arabia and Libya.
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