With Lula, Brazil records its first March current account surplus in 17 years

Reuters — Brazil posted a current account surplus of $286 million in March, the strongest result for the month in 17 years, driven by the trade balance performance, the central bank said Tuesday.

As a result, the accumulated deficit over 12 months amounted to the equivalent of 2.66% of GDP. In March 2022, the country recorded a current account deficit of $3.016 billion.

In March, the trade balance achieved a surplus of $9.480 billion, which is the highest positive balance in the historical series, compared to $6.094 billion in the same month of 2022.

Goods exports also recorded a record high, amounting to $33.317 billion, an increase of 12.1% compared to March 2022. Goods imports recorded a year-on-year increase of 0.9%, reaching $23.837 billion.

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This resulted in the first positive current account result since June 2022, and the first for the month of March since 2006.

The trade balance is “largely thanks to agricultural exports, as Brazilian products have not only gained more and more space on the international market, but also benefited from the great appreciation of the current situation,” CM Capital economist Matthieus Pisani assesses.

In the month, direct investment in the country reached 7.673 billion US dollars, up from 6.875 billion US dollars in March last year. The primary income account in March showed a deficit of $6.432 billion, compared to a negative balance of $6.046 billion in the same period of the previous year.

The deficit in the services account, in turn, amounted to 2.857 billion dollars, compared to a negative balance of 3.326 billion dollars in March of the previous year.

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