Volume of Services in Brazil changed by 0.1% inFebruary 2026, from January, driven by the activities of Information and Communication (1.1%), with IT Services and and Transportation (0.6%), driven by road freight transport (0.9%) stand out. With this result, the sector of Services reaches a record figure in the time series. Against February 2025, volume of services increased 0.5%, and reached its 23rd consecutive positive result. The cumulative index over 12 months was 2.7%. Information comes from the Monthly Survey of Services (PMS), released today (14) by the IBGE.

“Information and Communication services accounted for the main contributions to the month-on-month result and on the comparison with a year ago. This performance of the information and communication sector has been consolidated since the end of the pandemic and influenced the services sector as a whole,” said the survey analyst Luiz Carlos de Almeida Junior. 

In February, three of the five activities investigated in the PMS grew. Besides Information and Communication and Transportation, the other increase in the month was in services rendered to families (1.4%), which recovered from the 0.5% loss of January and recorded the highest rate since March 2025 (1.8%). Conversely, professional, administrative and complementary services (-0.3%) registered its third consecutive negative rate, with a cumulative loss of -0.7% in the period. Also with a negative result, other services (-0.4%) reversed part of the gain observed in January (3.6%).

“Transportation grew 0.6% against the previous month, driven positively mainly by road freight transport, activities related to logistics and cargo storage, and metro-rail passenger transport; and negatively by passenger air transport. When we analyze this same type of comparison from the perspective of usage, we see that from January to February 2026, freight transport grew by +0.9%, while passenger transport remained stable (0.0%),” explained the survey analyst.

In the annual comparison, Services sector grew by 0.5%, the 23rd consecutive positive result

Compared to February 2025, the volume of services showed an expansion of 0.5%, the 23rd consecutive positive result. This month's advance was accompanied by growth in three of the five dissemination activities and included growth in 44.6% of the 166 types of services investigated.

Among the sectors, information and communication (4.9%) accounted for the main positive impact in this comparison, driven mainly by increased revenue in information technology consulting; data processing, application service providers and internet hosting services; portals, content providers and other internet information services; and custom software development.

The remaining gains came from services rendered to families (4.2%) and professional, administrative, and complementary services (0.8%), mainly due to the higher revenue from restaurants and hotels in the first sector; and from intermediation of businesses in general through e-commerce platforms or applications; advertising space brokerage; accommodation booking services; and legal activities in the last one.

Conversely, the main negative impact came from transportation (-2.8%), followed by other services (-2.8%), largely pressured by lower revenue from air passenger transport; cargo logistics; and port and terminal management in the first sector; and from auxiliary activities of financial services; brokers and agents of insurance, supplementary pension plans, and health plans in the last one. 

13 of the 27 Federation Units will have an increase in volume of services in February 

Regionally, less than half (13) of the 27 Federation Units reported an expansion in volume of services in February 2026, against the immediately previous month, despite the slight positive variation observed in the result for Brazil (0.1%). Among the locations that showed positive rates in that month, the most significant impact came from Rio de Janeiro (1.0%), followed by Bahia (1.7%), Rio Grande do Sul (1.1%) and Mato Grosso do Sul (4.2%). Conversely, São Paulo (-0.4%) exerted the main negative influence for the month, followed by Mato Grosso (-1.3%), Pará (-1.8%), Espírito Santo (-0.8%) and Alagoas (-2.3%).

“Rio de Janeiro stands out positively in the comparison between February and January 2026, growing by 1.0%. This result is related to an increase in audiovisual services, legal activities, and publishing. São Paulo, on the other hand, shows a negative trend with a decrease of -0.4%, linked to a drop in the volume of labor recruitment, air transport, and IT services,” explained Luiz Carlos de Almeida Junior.

Against the same month in the previous year, the expansion in volume of services in Brazil (0.5%) was observed in only 9 of the 27 Federation Units. The most significant positive contribution came from São Paulo (3.7%), followed by the Federal District (4.5%) and Mato Grosso (2.7%). Conversely, Rio de Janeiro (-3.6%) led the losses for the month, followed by Minas Gerais (-3.7%), Paraná (-3.8%), and Ceará (-7.4%).

After the third consecutive negative result, tourism activities had a cumulative drop of 1.7%

In February 2026, the tourism activity index showed a 0.9% decrease compared to the immediately preceding month, the third consecutive negative result, during which it accumulated a loss of 1.7%. As a result, the tourism sector is 11.4% above the level of February 2020 (pre-pandemic) and, in February 2026, is operating 2.0% below the peak of its time series, reached in December 2024. Regionally, ten of the 17 locations surveyed followed this downward trend observed in national tourism activity (-0.9%). The most significant negative influence was in São Paulo (-1.8%), followed by Pará (-11.2%), Rio de Janeiro (-0.5%), Rio Grande do Sul (-2.0%), and Ceará (-2.6%). Conversely, Rio Grande do Norte (13.7%) led the gains in tourism this month, followed by Bahia (1.3%) and Pernambuco (2.1%).

 “Regarding tourism activities, there is an important base comparison effect, since between August and November 2025 there has been a cumulative increase of 2.5%. However, between December 2025 and February 2026, we have a cumulative decrease of 1.7%, reversing some of the gains observed in the previous period,” emphasizes the PMS analyst.

Luiz Carlos de Almeida Junior adds that “we cannot speak of a high season period when dealing with a series in which the expected seasonal effects have been removed.

What this drop indicates is that there are other specific factors influencing the reduction in the volume of services in these last three months, even after discounting the expected seasonality. This month, the main influence on this drop came from air passenger transport.”

Passenger transport remains stable, while freight transport grows by 0.9%

In February 2026, the volume of passenger transport in Brazil remained stable (0.0%) compared to the previous month, in the seasonally adjusted series, after having recorded three consecutive declines, and a loss of 4.9%. Thus, in this reference month, the segment is 6.5% above the level of February 2020 (pre-pandemic) and 18.2% below February 2014 (the peak of the time series).

In turn, volume of cargo transportation recorded an increase of 0.9% in February 2026, after a drop for two consecutive months, a period with a cumulative decrease of 1.9%.

In turn, the volume of freight transport showed growth of 0.9% in February 2026, after having declined for two consecutive months, a period with a cumulative loss of of 1.9%. Thus, the segment is 3.9% below the peak of its series (July 2023). Compared to the pre-pandemic level, freight transport is 38.8% above the figure in February 2020.

Against the same month in the previous year, without seasonal adjustment, passenger transport fell by 4.0% in February 2026, interrupting a sequence of seventeen consecutive positive results; while freight transport showed a drop of 0.7%, in the same type of comparison, and similarly, ended a sequence of nine consecutive advances.

The next release of the PMS, referring to the results for the month of March, will be on May 15th.

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