Brasília, October 20, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The cumulative surplus in Brazil's trade balance through the third week of October (13-19) came to US$ 19, 427 billion, according to information released today by the Ministry of Development, Industry, and Foreign Trade. During this period, exports totalled US$ 57.213 billion, and imports, US$ 37.786 billion.

Encouraged by continuously improving results, Minister Luiz Fernando Furlan and financial market analysts are already estimating a surplus of US$ 22 billion by year's end.

In October, through the 19th, the balance registered a US$ 1.625 billion surplus. US$ 4.423 billion were exported (an average of US$ 340.2 million per business day), and US$ 2.798 billion were imported (an average of US$ 215.2 million per business day). During the third week of the month, the surplus came to US$ 559 million.

Compared with October, 2002, which had one more business day, exports grew an average of 20.9% per business day, and imports, 15.9%. In relation to last month, the average per business day grew 2.8% for exports and 2.7% for imports.

For the year so far, there has been an increase of 22.2% in average daily exports and a decrease of 0.3% in average daily imports. (DAS)