Pesquisa Mensal de Serviços
Services sector remains stable in May, pressed by drop in transportation
July 12, 2019 09h00 AM | Last Updated: July 12, 2019 11h28 AM
After increasing 0.5% in April, volume of services remained stable in May (0.0%) compared with the previous month. Transportation was the only activity to drop this month, retreating 0.6%. As a result, the services sector is 1.1% below the level of December 2018, pressed by land transportation, which is 5.6% far from the level of the end of last year.
These are data from the Monthly Survey of Services - PMS, released today by the IBGE. The activities that rose compared with April were information and communication services (1.7%), which registered the second positive rate in a row, other services (2.6%), professional, administrative and complementary services (0.7%) and services rendered to families (0.5%).
Taking into account the first five months of the year, according to Rodrigo Lobo, manager of the survey, transportation, mainly road transportation, was one of the major barriers to the growth of this sector, which recorded three negative results in the year.
"The sector of transportation depends on industry. As most of our production is transported through roads, as the industrial output does not grow, there is no need to hire the service of cargo transportation", explains him.
Compared with the volume of services traded in December, information technology services related to the internet and social media increased 5.5% and they are currently at the highest level of the time series started in January 2011.
Professional and administrative services (3%) and housing and food (1.4%) also rose in this comparison. According to Lobo, despite some sectors show dynamism, the sector as a whole does not advance, due to the difficulties in the volume of businesses among enterprises. In the downturn, enterprises do not renew contracts of services considered superfluous, like surveillance and security, cash transportation and cleaning.
"The brake introduced in the public expenses also contributed to reduce the services. While the private investment dos not take the place of the public one, it seems that the sector will have difficulties to resume growth", concludes the manager of the IBGE´s survey.
