Brazil’s trade surplus reached US$19.7 billion in 2015, the highest since 2011, Brazil’s Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade announced this week.

The official data showed Brazilian exports hit US$191.1 billion in 2015, while imports reached US$171.4 billion last year.

In a statement, the Ministry added that the daily average value of exports fell 14.1 percent last year from a year earlier. The daily average value of imports posted a 24.3-percent year-on-year decline in 2015, it added.

“If the volume [of exports] in 2015 had been sold at the average price [registered in] 2014, we would have had extra revenues worth approximately US$37 billion,” Brazil’s Secretary of Foreign Trade, Daniel Godinho, was quoted as saying in the statement.

According to Brazilian news agency Brasil, the nation’s trade surplus last year also surpassed the Brazilian Government’s estimates, which had pointed to a likely annual trade surplus of US$15 billion in 2015.

In 2014, Brazil had posted a trade deficit of US$4.1 billion, the country’s first trade deficit since 2000, the media outlet added.