Brasília, February 3, 2004 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Brazil began the year with a record trade balance surplus: US$ 1.588 billion, the result of US$ 5.8 billion in exports and US$ 4.212 billion in imports. This figure was the highest ever recorded in the month of January.

A new record was also set by the percentage increase in Brazilian exports, 26.5%, in comparison with January, 2003, according to an evaluation made by the secretariat of Foreign Trade (Secex).

For the secretary of the Secex, Ivan Ramalho, the increase was largely due to higher prices for products that weigh heavily in Brazil's export portfolio, such as soybeans, soy meal, coffee, beef, and chicken. "These products, in addition to registering an increase in volume, also experienced substantial price gains in January," he said. According to the secretary, it is possible that the upward move in international prices last month, especially for basic commodities, already reflects the impact of occurences of "mad cow" disease in the United States and "bird flu" in Asia. "Perhaps, in the case of beef, it had some influence. But, in the case of chicken, this episode is still too recent to assess whether the price increase already represents an effect," he affirmed. According to him, the two diseases will truly make their impact felt next month.

All three product categories - basic commodities, semi-manufactured goods, and manufactured goods - showed improvements over January, 2003. Among basic commodities, the foreign sales of which increased, on the average, 43.7%, in comparison with January, 2003, corn, soybeans, and petroleum stood out, with earnings increases of 528.6%, 103.4%, and 95.9%, respectively.

In the case of semi-manufactured goods, with a 4% increase in exports, the largest earnings increases occurred in transactions involving lumber (51.6%), cellulose (24.3%), and semi-manufactured iron and steel products (3.3%).

With respect to manufactured goods, which showed an overall increase of 16.5% in foreign sales, the stellar performers were earth-moving equipment, automobiles, laminated sheet steel, and auto parts, with earnings increases of 157.1%, 74.6%, 58.7%, and 45.4%, respectively. "Our expectation is for exports to grow on the order of 11% during the course of the year, so many of these products should level off," Ramalho concluded. (DAS)