Brazil closes out year with record trade surplus


FE Team | Published: January 04, 2018 00:27:39


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."

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