Brazil posts record trade surplus of $62.3 billion in 2022

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil posted a $62.3 billion trade surplus in 2022, official data showed on Monday, a record in the series started in 1989.

In December, the trade surplus was $4.8 billion, said the Development, Industry, Trade and Services ministry. That exceeded the $3 billion surplus forecast in a Reuters poll with economists.

The 2022 result were above the most recent expectations of the Jair Bolsonaro government, which in October had projected a trade surplus of $55.4 billion.

Total exports for the year also reached a record high of $335 billion, a 19.3% growth, helped by a boost in prices in the agriculture and livestock sector.

Imports, meanwhile, jumped 24.3% and were also record-breaking, at $272.7 billion.

Both ends of the trade flow were affected by a sharp increase in prices, which rose much higher than the volume of commercial transactions: 13.6% on average for exports and 23.4% in imports.

Higher prices of certain commodities also favored the country’s exports, as in the case of soybeans, which had a 20.8% increase in the value of exports in 2022, to $46.7 billion.

The value of crude oil shipments grew 39.5% to $42.7 billion.

Iron ore and concentrates exports, meanwhile, fell 35.3% in value to $28.9 billion, amid lower demand from China, whose economy slowed in 2022 as strict COVID-19 control measures affected activity.

In December alone, exports grew 14% compared with the previous year, to $26.6 billion. Imports reached $21.9 billion, or 12% above the last month of 2021.

(Reporting by Marcela Ayres and Isabel Versiani; Editing by David Gregorio)