Brazil closes out year with record trade surplus

BRASILIA, Jan 3 (AFP): Brazil's road to economic recovery has passed another milestone with official data showing Tuesday that the country finished 2017 with a record trade surplus 40.5 per cent higher than in the previous year.

The $67 billion surplus was in line with market projections and within the $65 billion to $70 billion range forecast by the government.

Brazil's economy is projected to grow two per cent this year, according to an annual report by the United Nations-backed Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) released last month.

That is unspectacular but solid-and far better than the 0.2 per cent expected for 2017, or the two years of of its worst-ever recession preceding that.

Economy Minister Henrique Meirelles said last month that the improvement was owed to better "fiscal control, the approval of a freeze on public spending and reforms in general."