Sales of construction materials disappoint and should fall 6% in the year, says Abramat

Sales in the construction materials industry are on track to close the year with a result well below expectations by the Brazilian Association of Construction Materials Industry (Abramat) and by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) due to the weight of inflation and the high indebtedness of families.

After a series of declines in sales throughout the year, the association has revised downwards projections for total sales in 2022, which are now down 6.0%. The data is already deflated.

The expectation outlined at the beginning of the year by Abramat and FGV was a 1% increase in sales in 2022. But with the poor results, this expectation had already been revised, in October, to a decrease of 2.2%.

The most recent survey by the two institutions showed that sales by the materials industry in November dropped by 5.4% in relation to the same month last year, and a decrease of 0.3% in comparison with October of the same year. Sales accumulate a 6.8% drop from January to November 2022 compared to the same months in 2021.

The president of Abramat, Rodrigo Navarro, said that several factors contributed to the downward revision of the estimates. One of the points that deserves to be highlighted, according to him, was the high indebtedness of families and inflation. “There is a context of a more disputed domestic budget with food expenses, which has depressed the demand for materials”, he explained.

Another factor is the lack of definitions regarding the fiscal and economic policies to be developed by the government of president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, he added. “In any case, FGV projections indicate a positive 2023, with a lot of work with the new governments and Congress”, amended Navarro, in a note.