The Brazilian industry showed improvement in production in the last four months, when it accumulated an expansion of 1.8%. However, the performance was still insufficient to recover the 1.9% drop recorded in January. The data are from the Monthly Industrial Survey – Physical Production of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), released this Tuesday (5th).
According to André Macedo, IBGE research manager, the Brazilian industry has shown a change in behavior, which now brings a predominantly more positive production performance, but still “completely insufficient to eliminate the recent losses of this industrial sector”.
“The industrial sector engages four consecutive months of growth in production, but with this exception, which does not even eliminate the fall in January”, said André Macedo, manager of the IBGE survey.
Industrial production increased 0.3% in May compared to the previous month, after expansions of 0.2% in April, 0.6% in March and 0.7% in February. However, production still operates at a level 1.1% lower than in February 2020, in the pre-pandemic period.
“After two years, the industrial sector is still below that level”, stressed Macedo.
The improvement in the performance of the industry in the last four months may be related to the government’s measures to release extraordinary resources for families, such as FGTS withdrawals and the anticipation of the 13th salary for retirees and pensioners. This extra income for families would be helping the industrial sector, as well as the reduction of the unemployment rate in the job market, considered Macedo.
On the other hand, the industry remains negatively affected by the restriction in the supply of inputs and components, as well as by pressured inflation and high interest rates, which impact the purchasing power of families and domestic demand.
In May, only 13 of the 26 activities investigated were operating at a level higher than the pre-sanitary crisis. The highest levels compared to February 2020 were registered by the activities of machinery and equipment (22.6%), petroleum products and biofuels (5.9%), wood products (4.9%) and non-metallic minerals. metallic (4.8%).
“Machines and equipment for the agricultural sector and for construction are two that help in this sector’s maintenance well above the pre-pandemic level as a whole”, justified Macedo.
At the opposite extreme, the segments furthest from the pre-pandemic level are furniture (-23.6%), clothing and accessories (-19.8%), vehicles (-14.2%) and perfumery and cleaning (-10.2%).
Among use categories, capital goods production is 16% above the February 2020 level, and intermediate goods manufacturing is 1.7% above pre-covid. Durable goods are down 25%, and semi-durables and non-durables are down 5.8%.
From April to May, the advance in industry was the result of expansion in 19 of the 26 surveyed sectors. The main positive influences came from machines and equipment (7.5%) and automotive vehicles, trailers and bodies (3.7%).
Other relevant positive contributions came from food products (1.3%), leather, travel articles and footwear (9.4%), electrical machines, equipment and materials (5.5%), other transportation equipment (10.3 %), miscellaneous products (9.0%), maintenance, repair and installation of machinery and equipment (7.5%) and computer equipment, electronic and optical products (3.6%).
In the opposite direction, among the seven activities with reduction, the most significant losses were those of extractive industries (-5.6%) and other chemical products (-8.0%).
By categories of use, the production of the capital goods industry increased by 7.4% in May compared to April, while that of intermediate goods decreased by 1.3%. The manufacture of durable consumer goods rose 3.0% and that of semi-durables and non-durables increased 0.8%.
According to André Macedo, the magnitude of the increase in capital goods is explained by the low comparison basis (the category came from a loss of 6.8% in April), but the improvement in May was widespread. The highlights were advances in the manufacture of capital goods that are within the industry and in capital goods for transport, such as trucks, but there were also increases in capital goods for the electricity, construction and agriculture sectors.
As for the decline in intermediate goods, Macedo considers that it was a one-off, since the group is still above the pre-pandemic level and had the poor performance of May explained by losses in the activities of extractive industries and other chemical products.
Source: CNN Brasil
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