Brazil is positioned as the main business partner of Uruguay, both in terms of exports and imports, in a complex year in terms of trade balance and external placements for the country that, after a 2022 that broke all records, is going through a downward trend, especially if consider the operations in free trade zone.
He Foreign Trade Report of the Institute of International Business of the Catholic University of Uruguay (UCU) It is decisive in terms of the figures: the 25% of exports without free zones In August it had a single destination, which coincides with being the main trading partner during the first eight months of the year, concentrating the 22.2% of placements—also without considering free zones. Brazil.
The northern country surpassed several months ago China in terms of international business, and is firmly positioned as a leader in the Uruguayan scenario, marked by a significant deterioration in the trade balance that this year accumulates 1,885.6 million dollars —when from January to August 2022, the balance was 147 .8 million dollars. In short, while exports without free zones fell by 23% in the year, Brazil was capturing a good part of this market.
In August alone, exports to the country governed by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva increased by a 2.4% compared to the same month of 2022. According to the UCU report, the three main products sold to Brazil were electrical energy (24.2%), malta (18.9%) and rice (9.9%).
Also in the annual accumulated it leads Brazil, with 22.2% of exports. China is in second place, with 17.6%. A fact that is by no means minor: without considering free zones, the operations showed a 19.2% increase with the first, while they fell 43.7% with the second country.
Imports were also dominated by Brazil
Brazil Not only does it lead the list of countries that receive Uruguayan products, but it is also the place from which most of the goods imported into the national territory come from, being origin of 28.3% of imports in August and 22.5% of those carried out in the accumulated of the year.
He increase monthly on a year-on-year basis in August was 44.4%, and the value of the purchases totaled 339.4 million dollars. The electric power was the main product purchased in the northern country for a total of 111.8 million dollars, the 33% of the acquisitions made by Uruguay to Brazil.
In this segment, China’s participation also grew compared to August 2022, although it remained in a distant second place, representing 19.7% of imports, for a total of 236.5 million dollars.
If we look at the year’s accumulated data, meanwhile, Brazil was also the main origin, meaning the 22.5% of total imports, for an amount of 1,873.5 million dollars. Regarding the first eight months of 2022, these figures represent a 14% increase.
In this sense, China was also ranked second with 18.9% of total imports – for a total of 1,578.7 million dollars – and an increase of 8.6% compared to the same period last year.
Source: Ambito
