LatinNews Daily - 02 March 2023

* Brazil’s ministry of development, industry, and foreign trade has released the latest figures for the country’s trade balance, showing a surplus of US$2.8bn for February 2023, down from US$4.6bn registered in February 2022. The lower trade surplus was mainly driven by a decrease in exports, the value of which came to US$20.6bn, down 7.7% on February 2022. Imports in February 2023 totalled US$17.7bn, down from US$18.9bn in February 2022. The products which saw the greatest drop in year-on-year export value were crude oil which totalled US$1.2bn in February 2023 (-67.9%), coffee (US$437m) (-44.3%), and beef (US$614m) (-27.0%). As regards export destinations, exports to East and Southeast Asia, which totalled US$7.97bn in February 2023, saw a significant drop in value, down 15.5% compared to February 2022, with a 17.0% decrease to Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries (which totalled US$1.5bn), and a 14.0% drop to China, Hong Kong, and Macau (which totalled US$5.2bn), although the value of exports to Japan increased by 24.2% to US$427m. Exports to Europe totalled US$3.8bn in February 2023, down 13.2% in value on February 2022, while exports to Central America and the Caribbean totalled US$316m, down 17.9% year-on-year and exports to Africa dropped 3.9% year-on-year to US$906m. Exports to North America were up by 6.3% to US$3.3bn, however, while exports to South America increased by the same amount to US$3.1bn.