The annual FDI was below the estimate presented three weeks ago by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad), which was US$ 37.4 billion, but still it was almost twice as much as the total for 2006. The figure was also slightly lower than the projection of the Central Bank, which was US$ 35 billion.
The current account surplus, which includes the balance of trade, services, income and unilateral transfers, posted a US$ 699 million deficit in December, but ended the year at a surplus of US$ 3.555 billion. In the previous year, the country had run a current account surplus of US$ 13.621 billion.
The balance of trade ran a surplus of US$ 3.636 billion in December, and ended the year at US$ 40.040 billion; the income and services account ran a deficit of US$ 4.795 billion and accumulated US$ 40.570 billion during the year; unilateral current transfers ran a US$ 460 million surplus in December and a US$ 4.086 billion surplus in the year.
Foreign reserves stood at US$ 180.334 billion in 2007, as against US$ 85.839 billion in 2006.
Lower Trade Surplus
Foreign sales of Brazilian products totaled US$ 3.284 billion last week, at a daily average value of US$ 656.8 million, whereas national purchases of foreign products stood at US$ 2.932 billion, at a daily average of US$ 586.4 million.
The balance of trade ran a surplus of US$ 352 million between the 21st and 25th this month, according to a bulletin disclosed this by the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
In the accumulated result for the month, the balance of trade is running a US$ 748 million surplus, as a result of US$ 10.858 billion in sales and US$ 10.110 billion in purchases. Exports have decreased by an average of 15.2% compared with the previous month, whereas imports have grown by 6%.
Thus, the average daily surplus for the 18 business days in January, until last Friday (25th), is just US$ 41.6 million, which is 63.7% less than the average for January last year, and 77.1% lower than the average recorded last month.
ABr