Services
With 1% increase in April, sector has the first positive rate in the year
June 14, 2018 09h00 AM | Last Updated: June 19, 2018 03h42 PM
After starting the year with two negative rates and stability, services grew 1% in April compared to March. The change was not enough to reverse the cumulatice negative change in the year, which is -0.6%. In relation to April 2017, the volume of services increased 2.2%, the highest since March 2015. The information is from the Monthly Survey of Service (PMS), released today by the IBGE.
With April growth compared to March, the services sector is 11.8% below the high point of the time series, recorded in November 2014. Of the five activities surveyed, four had increases, with a change of 1.2% in transportation, support services to transportation and mailing activities; of 1.7% in professional, administrative and complementary services; 1.5% in services rendered to families; and 0.7% in other services. The only negative impact came from information and communication services, with -1.1%.
Survey manager Rodrigo Lobo explained that "transportation, which have a weight of 30% on the index, was the activity of greater influence, slightly above professional services, which represent 21%." He also said that transportation has been in a recovery trend since mid-2017, especially road freight.
While the volume growth in services in April, compared to March, was distributed among sectors, it was concentrated regionally. The advance was driven by 11 Federation Units, with emphasis on São Paulo (1.7%) and Rio Grande do Sul (5.7%). The former registered the third positive rate in a row, and the latter recovered part of the 7.8% loss accumulated in the first three months of the year.
About the 2.2% increase compared to April last year, Rodrigo said that the result can be explained by the predominance of positive rates among the activities surveyed, despite the 1.6% decline in information and communication services, which weighed 33% on the total. In this comparison, the volume of transportation grew by 4.4%, and professional, administrative and complementary services, 2.7%, after 36 months of negative rates.
