Brazil posted a trade surplus of US$23.64 billion in the first half of this year, with the result being affected by the nation’s weakening currency, the Brazilian real, said the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade last week.

It is the biggest trade surplus for the South American nation since the Ministry began to publish such data in 1989, financial newspaper The Wall Street Journal reported.

Local newspaper The Rio Times reported the main reason for the rise in the trade surplus was the decline in imports over the depreciation of the real against the U.S. dollar.

In the first half of 2016, the value of imports to the South American nation plunged 28.9 percent year-on-year to US$66.6 billion, while the value of its exports was down by 5.9 percent to US$90.24 billion, the newspaper reported.