Marli Moreira
Reporter - Agência Brasil

São Paulo - The depreciated value of the US dollar in relation to the real is hurting Brazilian exports, according to the Minister of Development, Industry, and Foreign Trade, Luiz Fernando Furlan. "The figures released today are only 5% better than last February's," he informed, yesterday (20), after participating in a ceremony to inaugurate the Export City program, in the municipality of Diadema, in the São Paulo metropolitan area. On Friday (17), the dollar fetched as little as R$ 2.10.

Furlan called for measures to counter the effects of the depreciation of the dollar. "There is no single solution; there is no cure that will resolve the issue by itself," he argued. "A set of measures is being prepared, and we hope that the exchange rate will settle, which still hasn't happened."

The trade balance announced yesterday by the government shows that imports grew more than exports in the third week of February. The trade surplus (exports minus imports) fell from US$ 881 million in the previous week to US$ 579 million. "This is the first time the trade surplus has gone down in the month of February in comparison with February of the previous year. And this should tell market actors who are permanently betting on a continuous decline in the exchange rate that the flow is gradually changing," Furlan suggested.

Translation: David Silberstein