Off the wire
• Chicago agricultural commodities close mixed  • EU regulators conditionally approve AB InBev's acquisition of SABMiller  • U.S. stocks rally amid data, earnings  • VW deal with U.S. car owners on track, says federal judge  • Murray denies ugly breakup with former coach Mauresmo  • Ajax appoint Bosz as new head coach  • Portugal reactivates 19 courts across country  • Feature: Bloody bombings in Syria's coastal city show IS brutality  • Ireland's jobless rate drops below 8 pct in April  • UN relief chief to visit refugee communities in southern Turkey  
You are here: 　 Home

Brazil posts first current account surplus in April since 2009

Xinhua, May 25, 2016 Adjust font size:

Brazil recorded a public current account surplus of 412 million U.S. dollars in April, the first positive result since April 2009, the central bank said on Tuesday.

The bank's chief economist, Tulio Maciel, told a press conference that the result had been better than anticipated.

"This result took us a little by surprise. We were aiming for this but the surplus came a little earlier than expected. Our expectation had been for a deficit of 1 billion U.S. dollars in April," Maciel said.

The April result contrasted with April 2015, when the public current account showed a deficit of 6.84 billion dollars.

A depreciation of the Brazilian currency real and a deep recession have curbed demand for imports and supported exports in Latin America's largest economy.

In the first four months of the year, the total deficit reached 7.166 billion dollars. In the past 12 months, the deficit climbed to a cumulative 34.1 billion dollars, or 1.97 percent of GDP.

Before April's results were known, the Central Bank projected a total deficit of 25 billion dollars in 2016.

Foreign investors' appetite for Brazil remained strong as investment into the Brazilian economy reached 4.61 percent of GDP in April, the central bank said. Endit