MDIC: drop in imports is smaller and may indicate improvement in economic activity – State of Minas

Brasília, 01 – Although the fall in imports has continued in August, the director of the department of statistics and export support of the Ministry of Industry, Foreign and Services Trade (MDIC), Herlon Brandão, said on the afternoon of Thursday, 1st , that the outside purchases last month have fallen less, which may indicate an improvement in economic activity. “the decline in imports in the last three months was lower than the average of the beginning of the year. to get an idea, the reduction 8.3% in imports in August was the smallest monthly decline since November 2014, when the decline compared to the same month of the previous year was 5.5%, “he said. In the year, however, the decline in imports is still 25.5%.

Brandão said that the smaller reduction in August imports was mainly intermediate goods. The oil purchases and derivatives including rose in the month, contrary to what had been happening since January. “Still, we continue to fall in the deficit in the balance of oil and oil products in 2016,” said the director.

Between January and August 2016, the negative balance in this account is $ 786 million and lower than the deficit of US $ 3.210 billion in the same period last year.

already on the export side, Brandão pointed out that the growth of sales by volume was lower in August, partly because the soybean crop shipments already occurred in previous months.

on the other hand, he pointed out that the price of sugar has risen in the international market, so it is expected that the product has featured in foreign sales by the end of the year. Among the manufactured goods, added the director, the balance of August also brought significant increase in car sales to the United States and countries in South America.

With only four months to the end of the year, MDIC maintains the projection of trade surplus between $ 45 billion and $ 50 billion in 2016. by August, the balance is positive at US $ 32.370 billion. “But we can revise the projection of exports and imports for 2016. We will announce this soon, but the projected surplus of $ 45 billion to $ 50 billion is maintained,” he added.