In December, the services sector registered a fall of 5.0% in volume of services, in comparison with the same month a year ago, against the -6.4% figure of November and the -5.8% result of October. It has been keeping the sequence of negative results recorded in 2015, except for March, which recorded increase of 2.3%. In this comparison, all segments had negative changes: Services rendered to families (-7.0%); Information and communication services (-0.4%); Professional, administrative and complementary services (-8.8%); Transportation, support activities for transportation and mailing (-6.9%) and Other services (-10.0%). The cumulative rate, in the year and in 12 months, stood at -3.6%. The special aggregate of Tourism activities recorded decreases of 1.4%, in December, and of 1.9%, in November, and growth of 0.2%, in October. The nominal revenue recorded growth of 0.3% in December, in relation to December 2014, versus -0.9% in November and -0.4% in October. The cumulative rate of nominal revenue in the year and in 12 months was 1.3%. Click here to see the complete publication.

In the formation of the overall rate, the contributions of the segments by order of contribution were: Transportation, support activities for transportation and mailing activities, with -2.1 p.p., Professional, administrative and complementary services, with -1.8 p.p., Other Services, with -0.6 p.p., Services rendered to families, with -0.4 p.p. and information and communication services, with -0.1 p.p.

The segment of Services rendered to families contracted 7.0% in terms of volume of services in December over the same month in the previous year, against -6.6% in November and -4,8%, in October, keeping the trend of negative volume changes since May 2014. The cumulative rate in the year and in 12 months, stood at -5.3%. Lodging and food services and Other services rendered to families dropped 5.6% and 14.9%, respectively.

Information and communication services recorded change of -0.4% in volume of services in December, over the same month a year ago, against -4.3% in November and -3.2% in October. The cumulative change in the year and in 12 months stood at 0.0%.

Communication and information technology services - ICT posted a change of -0.3% in terms of volume of services, with a highlight to Telecommunications (-3.2%), and Information technology services, with growth of 8.2%. Audiovisual, publishing and news agency services recorded a change of -1.1% in volume of services, against the same month a year ago. The sharp growth seen in Information Technology Services is due to a seasonal aspect: the end of contracts celebrated by part of the major computer enterprises, in which service hirers (enterprises and governments) pay bigger shares in December.

The segment of Professional, administrative and complementary services dropped 8.8% in terms of volume of services in December, when compared with the same month a year ago, against falls of 6.7%, in November, and of 7.3%, in October. The cumulative rate in the year and in 12 months stood at -4.3%.

Technical-professional services, which correspond to knowledge-intensive services, declined 12.5% in terms of volume of services and Administrative and complementary services, which encompass labor-intensive services, declined 7.3%.

The segment of Transportation, support activities for transportation and mailing activitiesregistered a negative change of volume of 6.9%, in December, over the same month last year. In November and October, this segment had negative changes of 8.5% and 6.7%, respectively. The cumulative volume change in the year and in 12 months stood at -6.1%. In terms of mode, the figures for volume were: Land transportation, with -11.5%, Water transportation, with 6.2% and Air transportation, with 16.3%. The activity of Storage services, support activities for transportation and mailing activities registered a decrease of 5.2%.

The segment of Other services changed -10.0%, in terms of volume in December, against -7.7%, in November and -13.8%, in October. The cumulative change in the year and in 12 months stood at -9.0%.

Tourism activities recorded a drop in volume of 1.4% in December, in the comparison with December 2014, having recorded also decrease of 1.9% in November and growth of 0.2% in October. The cumulative change in the year and in 12 months stood at -2.1%.

In Q4 2015, Services has the lowest quarterly rate in the series (-5.7%)

The quarterly results pointed out the downturn of the services sector in the 2014/2015 period, with consecutive reductions in the volume growth rate, reaching -5.7% in the 4th quarter of 2015 - the lowest rate in the quarterly series. The most relevant drops, in the 4th quarter, were seen in Other Services (-10.6%), Professional, administrative and complementary services (-7.6%), Transportation, support activities for transportation and mailing activities (-7.3%) and services rendered to families (-6.1%). Information and communication services recorded a drop of 2.6% and Tourism Activities, a drop of 1.0%.

Services fall 4.9% in the 2nd semester of 2015 in relation to the 2nd semester of 2014

In the 2nd semester of 2015, the drop in the services sector stood at 4.9% in relation to the 2nd semester of 2014, with a highlight to the following negative changes, by order of value: Other services (-10.5%); Transportation, support activities for transportation and mailing activities (-6.8%); Professional, administrative and complementary services (-6.7%); Services rendered to families (-5.9%) and Information and communication services (-1.5%). Tourism activities declined 2.0% in the semester (Table 4).

Regional results: Amapá recorded decrease of 16.8% in services in December

As to the regional results  of the services sector in December 2015, in the comparison with the same month a year ago, four Federation Units presented positive changes of volume: Roraima (12.6%), Mato Grosso (10.5%), Rondônia (3.0%) and Alagoas (1.6%). The biggest negative changes were reported in Amapá (-16.8%), Maranhão (-13.8%) andBahia (-12.7%).

In regional terms, Tourism activities by selected Federation Units registered positive changes of volume in theFederal District (10.4%) and in São Paulo (1.0%). The negative changes of volume were registered in Espírito Santo (-9.9%), Santa Catarina (-9.4%), Goiás (-6.6%), Ceará (-4.4%), Minas Gerais (-4.0%), Pernambuco (-3.7%), Rio Grande do Sul (-3.1%), Bahia (-2.9%), Rio de Janeiro (-2.1%) and Paraná (-1.8%).