Brasília, June 25, 2004 (Agência Brasil) - The prospects for Brazil's external accounts are very encouraging, in the judgment of the head of the Economic Department of the Central Bank (BC), Altamir Lopes. He said, yesterday (24), that the US$ 2.4 billion cumulative surplus this year between January and May in the country's current external transactions - a category that includes receipts and expenditures for international travel, profit remittances, exports and imports, and interest payments - is a sign that the economy is less vulnerable.

"Since the figures are better than what was anticipated, Brazilian companies will not need to obtain as much money abroad in order to close the balance of payments," he said. According to Lopes, the surplus in this year's current transactions might reach US$ 2.5 billion - twelves times more than the US$ 200 million forecast at the beginning of the year. In May alone, the current external transactions account generated a surplus of US$ 1.478 billion, the best result since 1947.

Reporter: Gustavo Bernardes
Translator: David Silberstein