Brazil's foreign trade surplus reached 20.6 billion U.S. dollars in January-June 2007, announced the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade on Monday.

The figure for the same period of 2006 was 19.5 billion dollars, said the ministry.

Brazil's exports were valued at 73.2 billion dollars in the period, while imports totaled 52.5 billion dollars. The daily average sales to foreign buyers reached 590.4 million dollars, and importers spent an average of 423.8 million dollars per day in purchases from abroad.

The ministry also said that in June Brazil witnessed a surplus of 3.8 billion dollars, while the figure for the same month in 2006 was 4.1 billion dollars.

According to Brazil's central bank, analysts expect the country's foreign trade surplus to reach 42.2 billion dollars by the end of 2007.