Stênio Ribeiro
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - From the beginning of the year through last week, Brazilian companies exported US$ 44 billion more than they imported. This positive result (surplus) in the trade balance was announced yesterday (26) by the Ministry of Development, Industry, and Foreign Trade. The surplus represents a 33.19% increase in comparison with the same period last year, according to the ministry.

Up to this point, Brazil has exported US$ 116.314, 22.6% more than in 2004 during the same period. Imports have amounted to US$ 72.307 billion, 16.9% more than last year. Since there are still five business days left to complete the year, the country's exports are expected to surpass the US$ 117 billion export target set by the minister of Development, Luiz Fernando Furlan.

Daily exports have averaged US$ 472.8 million so far this year. In December the daily average has been US$ 499 million.

In the week before Christmas (December 19-25), Brazil exported the equivalent of US$ 2.495 billion and imported US$ 1.395 billion worth of goods and services. This represents a trade flow slightly down from the previous week, but still sufficient to generate a trade surplus of US$ 1.1 billion, raising the surplus for the month to US$ 3.574 billion.

Translation: David Silberstein