Current Account in Brazil

Tracks Brazil's current account balance within the balance of payments: the net result of its trade in goods and services, primary income (labour and capital) and secondary income (current transfers such as remittances). It is released monthly by the Banco Central do Brasil.

It is the sum of the goods, services, primary income and secondary income balances, compiled by the Banco Central do Brasil under the IMF's BPM6 framework. A positive balance means a surplus and a negative one a deficit, and it is usually reported in millions of US dollars.

A current account deficit must be funded by capital inflows (chiefly foreign investment) or by drawing down reserves, so its size and sustainability are key for the Brazilian real. A wide or widening deficit tends to weigh on the currency, whereas a firmer balance supports it.

The figures arrive with a lag of several weeks and are revised as fuller data come in. The monthly balance is volatile and heavily swayed by the trade balance and by income and interest payments on external debt, so the trend and the rolling twelve-month total are more telling.