In October, the services sector in Brazil registered a negative change of 5.8% in volume of services, versus the figure in the same month a year ago. It is the biggest decrease in the series, against -4.8% of September and -3.5% of August, in a sequence of negative results recorded in 2015, except for March, which recorded increase of 2.3%. The cumulative rate in the year stood at -3.1% and in 12 months, at -2.5%. In July and June, this segment posted negative changes of 8.5% and 3.6%, respectively. Services rendered to families (-4.8%); Information and communication services (-3.2%); Professional, administrative and complementary services (-7.3%); Transportation, support activities for transportation and mailing (-6.7%) and Other services (-13.8%). The special aggregate of Tourism activities grew 0.2%. Nominal revenue recorded negative change of -0.4% in October, in relation to October 2014, versus 0.0% in September and 1.1% in August. The cumulative rate of nominal revenue in the year reached 1.6%, and in 12 months, 2.0%. Click here to see the complete publication.

Table 1
Nominal Revenue Indicators of the Services Sector, by Groups of Activity
Brazil - October 2015

Source: IBGE, Diretoria de Pesquisas, Coordenação de Serviços e Comércio.

In terms of the global rate of volume, the segment of Transportation, support activities for transportation and mailing recorded the biggest contribution (-2.1 p.p.), followed by Professional, administrative and complementary services (-1.4 p.p), Information and communication services (-1.2 p.p.), The other segments recorded the following results: Other services, -0.8 p. p and Services rendered to families, -0.3 p.p.

Table 2
Absolute Composition of the Monthly Services Rate
by Group of Activity - Brazil - October - 2015

Source: IBGE, Diretoria de Pesquisas, Coordenação de Serviços e Comércio.
(1) Base 2011=100

The segment of Services rendered to families retracted 4.8% in terms of volume of services in October over the same month in the previous year, against -6.7% in September and -8.2% in August, remaining in a constant series of negative volume changes since May 2014. The cumulative rate in the year stood at -5.0% and, in 12 months, at -4.7%. Lodging and food services and Other services rendered to families dropped 5.1% and 2.7%, respectively.

Information and communication services recorded a nominal change of -3.2% in volume of services in October, over the same month a year ago, against -0.6% in September and 0.2% in August. The cumulative change in the year stood at 0.5% and, in 12 months, at 0.7%. Communication and information technology services - ICT changed by -3.5% in terms of volume of services, with highlight to Telecommunications (-4.0%) and Information technology services (-1.7%). Audiovisual, publishing and news agency services recorded a change of -1.5% in volume of services, versus the same month a year ago.

The segment of Professional, administrative and complementary services dropped 7.3% in terms of volume of services in October, when compared with the same month a year ago, against a drop of 8.1% in July and of 5.1% in August. The cumulative rate in the year stood at -3.5% and, in 12 months, at -2.7%. Technical-professional services, which correspond to knowledge-intensive services, declined 9.3% in terms of volume of services and Administrative and complementary services, which encompass labor-intensive services, 6.6%.

The segment of Transportation, support activities for transportation and mailing activities registered a negative change of volume of 6.7% in August over the same month last year. In September and August, this segment had negative changes of 6.4% and 4.3%, respectively. The cumulative volume change in the year stood at -5.8% and, in 12 months, at -4.6%. In terms of mode, the figures were: land transportation(-12.5%),waterway transportation (17.3%) and air transportation (14.1%). The activity of Storage services, support activities for transportation and mailing activities registered a decrease of 3.8%.

The segment of Other services changed -13.8% in terms of volume in August, against -9.9% in September and -12.6% in August. The cumulative rate in the year stood at -9.0% and, in 12 months, at -8.0%.

The special aggregate of tourism activities recorded increase of volume by 0.2% in October, versus October 2014, against a decrease of 3.4% in September and increase of 0.1% in August. The cumulative growth in the year stayed at -2.2% and the cumulative in 12 months, at -2.1%.

Regional results

By area, versus October 2014, four Federation Units recorded positive volume changes: Roraima (7.3%), Mato Grosso (4.7%), Mato Grosso do Sul (3.8%) and Rondônia (1.1%).  The biggest negative changes were reported in Amapá (-16.1%), Amazonas (-15.7%) and Maranhão (-12.7%).

Among the Tourism activities, by selected Federation unit, positive changes in terms of volume were registered in the Federal District (14.4%), followed by Goiás (2.9%), Bahia (1.9%) andRio de Janeiro (0.8%). The negative volume changes came from Rio Grande do Sul (-12.4%), Pernambuco (-4.5%), Paraná (-2.0%), Espírito Santo (-1.8%), Minas Gerais (-0.7%) Santa Catarina (-0.4%), São Paulo (-0.3%) and Ceará (-0.2%).