Concept: Balance on goods accounts transactions on items that are result of productive activities. Goods are physical, produced items over which ownership rights can be established and whose economic ownership can be passed from one institutional unit to another by engaging in transactions. The Balance on goods is divided in exports and imports. The exports registers the selling of goods from residents to nonresidents and the imports registers the purchases of goods by residents from nonresidents. The trade balance is compiled by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC) based on custom records of the Integrated Foreign Trade System (Siscomex), and are adjusted by the Central Bank with the goal of an ampler coverage. Information published by the MDIC are therefore incorporated to electric energy purchases that are not registered on Siscomex. Additionally, exports and imports are adjusted by the inclusion of operations in which the product is traded with a nonresident but doesn’t cross the border of the original country. Lastly, the trade balance incorporates international postal delivery registration.

Source: Central Bank of Brazil – Department of Economics