Concerning the results per activity in the seasonally-adjusted series, the segments of Services rendered to families increased 2.0%, as well as Transportation, support activities for transportation and mailing (0.4%). The segments of Information and communication services (-1.7%), Professional, administrative and complementary services (-1.3%) and Other services (-1.2) declined. The special aggregate of Tourism activities rose 3.1% compared with the immediately previous month.

In the seasonally-unadjusted series, the contribution of the segments to the overall rate of volume were: Information and communication services (-2.6 p.p.), Transportation, support activities for transportation and mailing (-2.1 p.p.), Professional, administrative and complementary services (-0.9 p.p.), Services rendered to families (-0.1 p.p.) and Other services (0.0 p.p.). 

Services fall 2.8% in Q4 over Q3

In the seasonally-adjusted series, the volume figures for the services sector declined 2.8% in the fourth quarter of 2016 in relation to the third quarter, reversing a series of smaller retractions reported in the previous quarters. In quarterly terms, the results of this last quarter posted the biggest retreat in the time series started in 2012.

The decline of 3.8% in the segment of Information and communication services, which accounted for 35.7% of the services sector, significantly contributed to the downturn of this sector as a whole. In this respect, the retreats of 3.2% in Telecommunications, 4.2% in Information technology services and 5.5% in Audiovisual, publishing and news agency services stood out.

The decline stood at 6.0% when compared with the same quarter a year ago. The drop of 9.5% in the segment of Transportation, support activities for transportation and mailing was the most impressive, followed by the drops of 4.7% registered in Information and communication services and in Professional, administrative and complementary services.

Services retreat 2.5% in second semester of 2016

In the seasonally-adjusted series, the results of the second semester pointed to a decline of 2.5% in relation to the first semester, slightly lower than the retreats reported in the first semester and in the second semester of 2015. Compared with the second semester of 2015, the decline stayed at 5.2%, also highlighted by the segment of Transportation, support activities for transportation and mailing, which dropped 9.2%.

Transportation, support activities for transportation and mailing (-7.6%)
 records the biggest drop in the cumulative rate in 2016

The cumulative figures in the year revealed the significant retraction of the services activities in 2016, in which the segment of Transportation, support activities for transportation and mailing recorded the highest cumulative drop (-7.6%), highlighted by Land transportation (-10.4%). It is important to stress the strong dependency of Cargo transportation – road, railway and pipeline – on the industrial sector, the biggest user of this service, both for the consumption of raw material and for the distribution of the production. Therefore, the recovery of this activity would depend on the recovery of the industrial sector.

The segment of Professional, administrative and complementary services also stood out by retreating 5.5% in 2016, highlighted by Technical-professional services, which dropped 11.4%. These activities that involve knowledge-intensive services like legal, accounting, auditing, business consulting, engineering and architecture, publicity and advertising, etc. depend on the demand of other institutional sectors, like industry, trade and government, which restricted their expenses and investments in 2016 and strongly affected their results.

The cumulative change in Information and communication services stood at -3.2%, though Audiovisual, publishing and news agency services registered a more intense drop (-7.1%).  The segment of Information technology services maintained a series of cumulative positive figures, even though its change in 2016 stood at a level below that reported in the previous years.

Having cumulatively changed -4.4% in 2016, Services rendered to families significantly depended on the recovery of the purchasing power of families to return to grow.

Bahia (-3.9%) posts the biggest drop in services between December and November

As to the seasonally-adjusted regional results in the services sector in December, the biggest positive changes in volume in relation to November were registered in Espírito Santo (4.4%), Ceará (4.3%) and Amazonas (3.4%). The biggest negative changes were reported in Bahia (-3.9%), Paraíba (-3.8%) and Acre (-3.5).     

As to the seasonally-unadjusted results compared with the same month a year ago, all the Federation Units recorded negative changes, highlighted by Mato Grosso (-33.1%), Rondônia (-19.6%) and Tocantins (-18.5%). 

São Paulo (6.6%) registers highest rise in Tourism activities

In the seasonally-adjusted series of Tourism activities, according to the selected Federation Units, the positive volume figures were: São Paulo (6.6%), Rio Grande do Sul (3.2%), Goiás (2.4%), Rio de Janeiro (1.4%), the Federal District (0.8%), Minas Gerais (0.2%) and Bahia (0.1%). The negative changes were recorded in Ceará (-7.6%), Santa Catarina (-3.5%), Espírito Santo (-3.4%), Paraná (-2.3%) and Pernambuco (-0.9%).     

In the seasonally-unadjusted comparison with the same month last year, the positive changes were: Goiás (13.9%), Pernambuco (8.2%), São Paulo (7.3%) and Rio Grande do Sul (1.4%). The negative changes were: the Federal District (-13.6%), Ceará (-10.9%), Rio de Janeiro (-7.3%), Espírito Santo (-5.8%), Minas Gerais (-5.2%), Bahia
(-2.4%), Paraná (-2.0%) and Santa Catarina (-1.5%).