Eclac: Brazil exports likely to boost 18% this year
Eclac headquarters in Santiago, Chile
A report published Monday (Oct. 10) by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac) indicates that foreign trade in this region will rebound this year, leaving behind “half a decade of falls in their export basket a slight increase in the volume exported” and reaching a 10% surge in the value of sales of goods overseas.
Specifically for Brazil, exports are estimated to grow 18% this year. Considering manufactured goods alone, the rate is forecast at 20%. Brazilian imports, in turn, are expected to expand 8.3%.
Eclac's figures were presented in Santiago, along with the publication of new estimates from the yearly report—the 2017 edition of the International Trade Outlook for Latin America and the Caribbean. According to the document, imports in the region are likely to recover after four years of lows. The projection for this year stands at a positive 7%. The region's economy is estimated to hike 1.2% in 2017, 2.2% in 2018.
According to Eclac Director in Brazil Carlos Mussi, the country will boost its exports by 18% and imports by 8.3% this year. As for manufactured products, the increase in exports is estimated at 20%. “This reflects a good moment in Brazil's foreign trade, as we have seen more favorable prices and a larger amount of exports, especially to Latin America,” Mussi told Agência Brasil.
“Despite the uncertainties observed in Latin America and the Caribbean at macroeconomic, technological, and geopolitical level, the factors that have contributed to the region's boost in trade include a more dynamic aggregate demand in some of its main commercial partners, the growth recovery in the region itself, the hike in the prices of most of its basic exports, and the dismantling of a number of customs and non-customs in some of its countries,” the report reads.
Faced with the “high concentration of raw materials” in Central America and the Caribbean, Eclac refers to de-commoditizing the region's export basket as an “urgent challenge.” To meet this goal, the commission adds, “it is essencial to develop distinctive attributes such as quality, trademarks, traceability, safety and international certifications (e.g. of organic production, fair trade or ecological footprint) that will allow higher prices to be achieved in world markets.”
Conditions should be brought about, Eclac goes on to argue, to allow products exported today “in their almost exclusively raw form” to be processed in the region itself. In order to do that, the study concludes, “more active industrial policies are key—to be implemented in the context of public-private ties.”
Translated by Fabrício Ferreira
Fonte: Eclac: Brazil exports likely to boost 18% this year
