The Gross Domestic Product at market prices changed by 0.3% in the first quarter of 2005, in relation to the fourth quarter of 2004, in the series with seasonal adjustment. In the first quarter of 2005, the growth was 2.9% in relation to the same period of the previous year. The accumulated index in the four quarters completed in the first quarter of 2005 grew by 4.6% in relation to the immediately previous four quarters.

According to the revision procedures of the series of the Quarterly National Accounts, the revision of the data of the previous quarter is organized in each publication. Exceptionally, in this publication, we are reviewing the year of 2004. This necessity is a consequence of a significant revision performed by ANATEL (National Agency of Telecommunications) in the series of Net Operational Income of the mobile telephony, sent to IBGE. This revision impacted the sector of Services, especially Communication, with consequences in other sectors and in the final result of the GDP. The accumulated GDP in the year 2004, after being reviewed, changed from 5.2% to 4.9%.

The summary table which follows presents the main results for the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at market prices referent to the last five quarters.

SUMMARY TABLE – Main results for GDP at market prices

From the 1st quarter of 2004 to the 1st quarter of 2005

Agriculture is the main positive highlight

Agriculture was the only activity which reached a positive growing rate, with 2.6%. The other activities presented negative changes: Industry –1.0% and Services –0.2%.

Exports of Goods and Services increased 3.5%

In relation to the components of demand, the exports of Goods and Services followed the trend of growth initiated in the second quarter of 2003, and obtained growth of 3.5%. The Imports of Goods and Services, by its way, registered for the sixth consecutive quarter an increase of 2.3%. A decrease of 3.0% in the Gross Fixed Capital Formation in the first quarter of this year, in relation to the fourth quarter of 2004, stands out. The Family Consumption fell by 0.6%; the Government Consumption changed by - 0.1%, in this type of comparison.

In relation to the first quarter of the previous year, GDP increased by 2.9%

The GDP at market prices increased 2.9% in the first quarter of 2005, in relation to the same period of 2004. The Value Added at basic prices presented an increase of 2.6% and the Taxes on Products a rise of 4.7%.

The three sectors which contributed to the generation of the Value Added presented positive rates in comparison with the first quarter of 2004. Agriculture was the highlight with growth of 4.2%, followed by Industry 3.1% and by Services 2.0%.

The following graph, presents the quarterly rates for the GDP and its main sub sectors, in the first quarter of years 2004 and 2005.

Family Consumption increased 3.1%

Among the components of demand, in the first quarter of 2005 in relation to the same quarter of 2004, Family Consumption reached 3.1%, maintaining the growth initiated in the fourth quarter of 2003 (1.3%).

The Gross Fixed Capital Formation registered a positive growth rate (2.3%) for the fifth consecutive time. Government Consumption was the component of demand which presented the lowest growth (0.7%).

Considering the foreign demand, the Exports of Goods and Services kept growing registering the rate of 13.6% in the period. The Imports of Goods and Services also presented once more an increase in this comparison, amounting to 12.2%. It must be pointed out that this is the sixth consecutive quarter of growth of Exports as well as of Imports of Goods and Services.

The graph below presents the rates of quarterly change of the components of demand for the last four quarters.

GDP accumulated in the last four quarters increased 4. 6%

The GDP at market prices, accumulated in the four quarters completed in the fourth quarter of 2005, presented growth of 4.6% in relation to the previous four quarters. This rate resulted from the rise of 4.2% of the Value Added at basic prices and of the increase of 8.3% in the Taxes on Products.

The result of the Value Added in this type of comparison is a result of the positive performance of the three sectors which form it: Industry (5.6%), Agriculture (4.9%) and Services (3.2%).

Among the sub sectors of the Industry, the highest increase was Manufacturing, with 6.4%. Following it, came Construction and Public Utilities with the respective growths of 6.1% and 4.9%. On the other hand, Mining and Quarrying presented negative change of 0.4%.

The major rises in Services occurred in the sub sectors of Trade and Miscellaneous Services (7.7% and 5.6%, respectively). Also presented growth the sub sectors of Transportation (3.5%), Financial Institutions (4.4%), Rentals (2.4%) and, in a lower extent Public Administration (0.4%). Regarding the sub sector of Communications, which had a revision in the data series of 2004, a fall of 1.8% in this comparison was observed.

In the analysis of the demand of Family Consumption, there was an increase of 4.4%; the Gross Fixed Capital Formation also presented growth, 11.0%, the highest rate since the third quarter of 1997. Considering this type of comparison the Government Consumption changed 0.1%.

Regarding the foreign sector, the Exports of Goods and Services presented, in this type of comparison, a growth of 16.4% and the Imports of Goods and Services increased 14.2%.