Brazil registers $24.7 bln of trade surplus in 2008

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan. 2 (Chinese media) -- Brazil's trade balance registered an accumulated surplus of 24.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, 38 percent down from the 40 billion dollars of surplus registered in 2007, the country's Development, Industry and Foreign Trade Ministry announced Friday.

The Ministry attributed the sharp reduction to the impacts of the ongoing global financial crisis.

Brazilian exports topped 197.9 billion dollars in 2008, up 23.2percent from the 160.6 billion dollars registered in 2007. However, it was still 2 percent less than the government's target of 202 billion dollars, announced in September.

Imports totaled 173.2 billion dollars, up 43.6 percent from last year's 120.6 billion dollars.

The 2008 trade surplus was slightly higher than the 24 billion U.S. dollar surplus projected by analysts from the Brazilian Central Bank, that also projected a trade surplus of 14 billion dollars for 2009.

In December, the country registered a trade surplus of 2.3 billion U.S. dollars, up from 1.6 billion dollars in November and down from 3.6 billion dollars in December 2007.

Brazil's exports in December totaled 13.8 billion dollars, down from the 14.7 billion dollars in November and 14.2 billion dollars in December 2007, while imports totaled 11.5 billion dollars in December, down from the 13.1 billion dollars in November and up from 10.5 billion dollars in December 2007.