Pesquisa Mensal de Serviços
Services sector grows 1.2% in September and leaves the negative level in the year
November 12, 2019 09h00 AM | Last Updated: November 14, 2019 10h27 AM
Sector of transportation, support activities for transportation and mailing grew 1.6% in September – Photo: Simone Mello/IBGE News Agency
The volume of services in the country grew 1.2% in September in comparison with August, when it fell 0.1%. This was the biggest high since August last year, according to the Monthly Survey of Services, released today by the IBGE.
The sector, which had presented five negative rates during the year, shows recovery by leaving the negative level in the cumulative rate in the year. “With this increase, the volume of services resets its reductions to zero throughout 2019, and shows growth in the year cumulative rate of 0.6%, overcoming by 0.1% the 2018 December level”, comments the survey manager, Rodrigo Lobo.
Until August, volume of services had accumulated so many negative rates in the year that it was 1.5% below the 2018 December level. In the amount of the last 12 months, the increase is of 0.7%.
The increase in volume from August to September was highlighted by the sector of transportation, support activities for transportation and mailing that, with a 1.6% rise, recovered the 0.7% loss of August. Another significant increase was in the professional, administrative and complementary services, of 1.8%, being the second positive result in a row of the activity, which accumulates a gain of 2.6%. In contrast, information and communication services, with a drop of 1%, reported the only negative rate of September, consequently removing part of the 2.3% rise that was accumulated between July and August.
In comparison with September last year, volume of services indicated a growth of 1.4%, after reporting a retraction of 1.3% in August. There were increases in only 80 of the 166 types of surveyed services (48.2%).
Rising of car rental
The main positive contributions to volume of services in comparison with September of 2018 came from car rental, brokerage firms, pipeline transportation, engineering services, and custom software development and licensing, as well as portals, content providers and internet search tools.
In September, the index of tourism activities increased 4.8% against August, which had presented a retraction of 4.5%. Compared with September last year, the sector showed an increase of 1%, especially motivated by the revenue growth of the car rental enterprises. However, the segments of air and road transportation and of restaurants reported the mainly negative influences in the activity.
The services that had more negative influence in the index in relation with September of 2018 were of satellite pay TV operators, road cargo transportation, activities of fund management on a fee or contract basis, advisory in information technology, electronic payment solutions, shipping agency activities and airport operation.
SP and RJ draw positive results
The good result was not seen across the country: only 11 of 27 Federation Units advanced against September of last year. The mainly positive contributions were from São Paulo (3.3%) and Rio de Janeiro (3.5%), where the segment of information technology had the most significant positive impact. On the other hand, the key negative influences came from Bahia (-5.6%) and Rio Grande do Sul (-2.3%), especially pressured by the road cargo transportation.
However, comparing with August, 14 of the Federation Units had increases in the volume of services. With a highlight for São Paulo (1.6%), Rio de Janeiro (3.5%), Paraná (1%) and Federal District (1.3%), in which the first three fully recovered from August losses. The main negative results in relation to the previous month came from Espírito Santo (-4.4%) and Bahia (-2.2%).
