Industrial production
Industry falls 1.3% in March and end of the quarter is marked by negative results
May 03, 2019 09h00 AM | Last Updated: May 03, 2019 02h44 PM
With a decrease of 1.3% in March, national industry had a cumulative result of -2.2% in Q1, with decreases in three of the four major economic categories and in 16 of the 26 activities surveyed by the Monthly Survey of Industry, released today by the IBGE.
The result of March, against February, eliminated the increase of 0.6% recorded in the previous month, with significant dissemination and decreases. The production of cars, for example, which had increased 6.4% in February, recorded -3.2% in March. The food industry, with -4.9%, eliminated part of the increase (13.8%) recorded in the previous month.
“We had recorded early production in different sectors of industry, in preparation for Carnival time”, says André Macedo, manager of the survey: “these same sectors recorded a decrease in March, due to the calendar effect, with two business days less in comparison with March 2018”.
Among the major economic categories, intermediate goods (-1.5%) recorded a decrease for the third month in a row. Durable goods (-1.3%) and semi and non-durable goods (-1.1%) interrupted a series of two months with increase. Capital goods were the only ones recording positive changes from February to March (0.4%), and now start their second month of positive rates.
Output of industry decreases 6.1% versus figure of March 2018
Against March 2018, it is possible to observe the continuous negative effects of the dam collapse in Brumadinho (MG) on mining and quarrying industry (-14%) and on the car industry (-13.3%), which accounted for the main negative contributions to the overall index of industry (-6.1%).
"The long-term effects of the Brumadinho tragedy are still visible, and that affects other mining and quarrying units in the country”, André Macedo adds.
