Brazil's two-way trade reached an all-time high in January this year, the trade ministry said on Thursday.

Exports grew 18.3 percent year-on-year to 10.9 billion U.S. dollars, said Brazil's Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, while projecting an 10.5 percent increase in annual exports by the end of the year.

That can be a sign that Brazil will register exports well above average in the next months, said Armando Meziat, the ministry's secretary for foreign trade.

Meziat said that January is traditionally regarded as a period in which exports will fall, or at least grow at a slower pace, but Brazil gained as much from its exports as it did in March 2006, when crops started to be shipped and boosted exports.

The South American country, however, registered a fall in its trade surplus, as imports also hit a record high.

In January, imports to Brazil amounted to 8.5 billion dollars, up 31.3 percent from a year ago. As a result, trade surplus fell from 2.82 billion dollars to 2.49 billion dollars.

Meziat said that imports tend to increase at a faster pace than exports, as Brazil is purchasing more raw materials and capital goods from abroad.

Source: Xinhua