Brazil nets trade surplus of $491m for April

Brazil on Monday posted a $491 million trade surplus for April, taking an accumulated deficit for the year to date to $5.066 billion, the trade ministry announced.

Exports over the month hit $15.156 billion over imports totaling $14.665 billion as the April figure came in 2.96 percent down on the same month in 2014.

March brought a $458 million surplus to stem January and February deficits of $3.173 billion and $2.842 billion respectively in the world's seventh largest economy.

Last year saw Brazil post its first annual trade deficit in 14 years at $3.930 billion on falling commodity prices as well as economic weakness in neighboring Argentina, a major regional trading partner.

The increasingly parlous state of public and current accounts, coupled with falling production and rising joblessness albeit from historic lows have hit Latin America's largest economy hard.

The central bank and the International Monetary Fund are forecasting growth this year to be negative at between minus 0.5 and minus 1.0 percent and recovery is not forecast before the end of next year.