The volume of services rendered in the country grew 1.1% from June to July, the third consecutive positive result, a period in which it accumulates a gain of 2.4%. With this result, the sector is 8.9% above the pre-pandemic level and 1.8% below its highest level, reached in November 2014. The data are from the Monthly Survey of  Services (PMS) and were released today (September 13) by the IBGE.

“With this growth of July, the services sector reaches the highest point since November 2014, i. e., the top of the series. The return of growth is very significant and related to the services rendered to companies, as those of information technology and cargo transportation, which have an important advance and achieve the peak of their respective series in July. So, what brings the services sector to this level is the dynamism of those two segments”, highlights survey manager Rodrigo Lobo.

The positive result was disseminated by three of the five activities surveyed, with a highlight to transportation (2.3%) and information and communication (1.1%), which exert the major positive influences on the index in July. The sector of transportation accumulated a gain of 3.9% in the last three months and , in July, was mostly influenced by the good results of activities such as management of ports and terminals and highway concessionaires. Cargo transportation, accumulating a high of 19.7%, since October last year, advanced 1.2% in July.

“The sector of transportation is already in the third positive rate in a row and reaches in July the highest point of the series. In this sector, one of the highlights was port and terminal management, very related to the outflow of agricultural crops. Transportation as a whole was benefited by production outflow, cargo loading and the resumption of passenger transportation”, explains PMS analyst Luiz Almeida.

The researcher also highlights the results of cargo transportation and of passenger transportation, which are 31.7% and 0.4% above the pre-pandemic level, respectively. “Cargo transportation has reached a record and that of passengers has been showing improvement with the resumption of activities, especially those related to tourism, with people traveling more and using again those services”, he adds.

The sector of information and communication, with the advance of July, could offset the negative change of the previous month (-0.2%). “This advance is related to the sector of information technology, mainly to services of information technology, which has grown a lot and were leveraged even in the pandemic, when companies had to hire support services for the work form home and provide online services. Within this sector in July, the advisory in information technology and portals, content providers and other Internet information services stood out”, says Mr. Almeida.

Services rendered to families (0.6%) grew for the fifth month in a row, accumulating a high of 9.7% in the period. Even  with the successive increases, this sector is still 5.7% below level of February 202, just before the sanitary crisis. “In July, the highlights in the sector were hotels and restaurants. We have seen tourism services being sought again, as observed in the rise of air transportation. Besides, July is vacation too. This segment has been narrowing down the distance from pre-pandemic levels, but it is still below it”, he claims.

On the other hand, the segment of other services retreated 4.2% after having advanced in the two previous months. Mr. Lobo says that this result can be related to changes in family consumption.

“In the pandemic heyday, from the second semester of 2020 until the middle of last year, auxiliary financial services grew significantly. By then, there was a rise in middle and middle-high family’s savings, as they shortened consumption due to pandemic restrictions. With the relaxation of restrictions, those families could use a greater share of their income in the consumption of goods and services and a smaller one in their savings. Therefore, the destination of the money to the financial market gets reduced compared to 2020 and 2021, when there was a considerable growth”, he indicates.

Professional, administrative and complementary services  (-1.1%) also decreased after growth in May and June. The drop is related to revenue reduction in companies which render services to other companies. “Services of business management advisory and accountability, accounting and tax auditing and advisory justify the drop seen in July. The drop takes place after a cumulative high of 1.9% in the months of May and June 2022, which still leaves a positive result of 0.8% when we take the last three months into consideration”, says Mr. Lobo.

From June to July, the volume of services of 17 of the 27 Federation Units grew. Among them, the greatest impact came from São Paulo (1.3%), Minas Gerais (1.9%), Santa Catarina (3.1%), Goiás (4.7%) and Pernambuco (4.0%). Whereas the major negative influences were exerted by  Federal District (-2.8%), Paraná (-1.2%) and Ceará (-2.5%).

Services advance 6.3% in the inter-annual comparison

Compared to July last year, the volume of the services sector grew 6.3%. This is the 17th positive rate in a row in this indicator. July result was especially influenced by the rise of 12.8% in the segment of transportation, support services to transportation and mailing.

Luiz Almeida highlights that the revenue increase in companies of  road cargo transportation, mass road transportation, air passenger transportation and maritime and port support navigation leveraged the advance of the sector.

Other three sectors advanced in this comparison: services rendered to families (22.6%), professional, administrative and complementary services (4.2%) and information and communication services (2.0%). The only negative rate came from other services (-11.3%).

Tourism activities recorded an increase of 1.5% in July

The index of tourism activities grew 1.5% in July, after a drop of 1.7% in the previous month. However, the tourism segment is still 1.1% below the level of February 2020.

“Hotels, restaurants and air transportation had a good performance. In addition to being a month of vacation, the fall of unemployment and the economic growth tend to drive the sector of leisure and business tourism. After this time without consuming that kind of services, people can be more willing to travel”, says Mr. Almeida.

In July, ten of the 12 places surveyed had a behavior of growth, with a highlight to São Paulo (4.6%), Santa Catarina (9.6%), Rio de Janeiro (2.0%) and Paraná (4.6%). Whereas Minas Gerais (-0.6%) and Rio Grande do Sul (-1.1%) were the only ones to shrink in the month.

More about PMS

The Monthly Survey of Services produces indicators to monitor the short-term behavior of the services sector in Brazil. The survey investigates the gross revenue from services in formal enterprises employing 20 or more persons, in which the main activity is a non-financial service, excluding the areas of health and education.  It produces results for Brazil and all the Federation Units.  Results are available at Sidra.