Industrial output drops after rising four months
October 03, 2017 09h00 AM | Last Updated: October 09, 2017 10h02 AM
The industrial output declined 0.8% in August over July, after registering a cumulative increase of 3.3% in the four immediately previous months. The sector of food products decreased 5.5% and contributed the most for the drop in the index, after three consecutive months of growth, followed by machinery and equipment (-3.8%), coke, petroleum products and biofuels (-1.6%) and mining and quarrying industries (-1.1%).
This information comes from the Monthly Survey of Industry - Brazil, released today by the IBGE, which also recorded an increase of 4.0% in the comparison with August 2016 and of 1.5% in the cumulative index in the year, as well as a change of -0.1% in the last 12 months.
André Macedo, manager of the survey, explains that the production of sugar strongly contributed both to the rises previously registered in the food industry and to the drop in August: "Sugar is a product that weights in this sector. Its production was favored by the anticipation of sugarcane milling, due to the dry weather that prevailed in the Central-West and Southeast regions over the last months".
André also highlights that, even the industrial output dropping in August, 16 out of the 24 sectors surveyed rose, highlighted by motor vehicles, trailers and bodies (6.2%) and toiletries, soaps, cleaning and personal hygiene products (5.5%): "The pace gain reported in the production after November 2016 helped to recover only part of the losses in the last years. It should be remembered that we are 17.8% below the record level reached in June 2013”.
Text: Pedro Renaux
Image: unsplash
Graph: Pedro Vidal
