Brazil recorded a trade surplus of 760 million U.S.dollars in May, the lowest since 2002, the Ministry of Development, Industry and Trade said Monday.

In May this year, Brazil‘s exports dropped 5.9 percent year-on-year to 21.8 billion dollars, while imports increased 4 percent year-on-year to 21.1 billion dollars, official figures show. Its trade surplus registered a fall of 74.3 percent from last year.

In the first five months of 2013, Brazil‘s trade accumulated a deficit of 5.4 billion dollars, the worst ever recorded for the period.

Exports fell 2.8 percent to 93.3 billion dollars during the first five months, while imports increased 9.8 percent to a total of 98.6 billion dollars.

In 2012, Brazil registered a trade surplus of 19.4 billion dollars, the lowest since 2002, representing a 34.7 percent drop from 2011.