PMS
Services sector down 0.3% in January, but increases over last year
March 15, 2019 09h00 AM | Last Updated: March 15, 2019 01h34 PM
The volume of services fell 0.3% in January compared to December 2018. However, in comparison with January 2018, the sector accumulated a gain of 2.1%, the highest increase since March 2015, when it grew 2.3% . The data are from the Monthly Survey of Services (PMS), released today by IBGE.
"In a deeper analysis, this slight drop in the monthly result did not cancel out the cumulative average between November 2018 and January this year," says survey manager Rodrigo Lobo.
Two of the five activities monitored by the survey declined compared to December 2018. Transportation, support services to transportation and mailing activities fell by 0.6% and Information and communication services, by 0.2%. Together, the two sectors account for 63% of the services in the country.
"A great deal of the drop in the transportation sector is due to the low performance of the activities of road, pipeline and cargo transportation. Information and communication services have suffered the impact from the lower revenue of development and licensing of computer programs, which is expected at the beginning of the quarter," says the survey.
Of the sectors that grew, professional, administrative and complementary services rose 1.7%, after falling 1.6% in December. There were also increases of 4.8% in other services, which includes activities such as purchase, sale and rental of real estate and maintenance of motor vehicles, and 1.1% in services rendered to families.
Regionally, 14 of the 27 Federation Units had decrease compared to December 2018. São Paulo exerted the main negative influence, with decrease of 0.5%. Acre, with -9.6%, had the worst performance and Mato Grosso, with 9.9%, the highest result.
The survey also monitors the services of tourist activities. In January, the segment grew both in relation to December 2018, 3.2%, and in comparison, with January 2018, 3.8%, interrupting four negative rates in a row in this comparison.
Four of the five activities grew in relation to January last year
In comparison with January 2018, services growth of 2.1% was seen in four activities. Information and communication services, with 3.4%, was the sector with the highest growth in the period.
According to Rodrigo, despite the loss of pace in information and communication services throughout 2018, the sector benefited from telecommunications. "The result can be explained mainly by the higher revenues of companies of the segment, generated by the migration of phone plans and the increase of data services," he explains.
