Between May and June, the regional indexes of the industrial output, in the seasonally adjusted series, increased in seven of the fourteen places surveyed. The highlights were the sharpest expansion registered by Amazonas (5.2%), which recovered part of the 7.4% loss accumulated in the May/March 2012 period. The other positive results were recorded by Espírito Santo (2.3%), Pernambuco (2.2%), Bahia (2.1%), Minas Gerais (1.3%), São Paulo (1.0%) and the Northeast Region (0.5%). Goiás (-6.0%), Rio de Janeiro (-4.3%), Pará (-4.2%), Paraná(-3.7%) and Rio Grande Grande do Sul (-3.1%) recorded the most significant negative rates, whereas Ceará (-2.2%) and Santa Catarina (-1.4%) posted more moderate decreases.

The complete publication of this survey can be accessed at www.ibge.gov.br/english/estatistica/indicadores/industria/pimpfregional/.

 In the comparison with the same month a year ago, there was a generalized tendency of negative rates, since 13 of the 14 places surveyed recorded drops in the output of June 2012, which had one less work day than the same month last year (21). The sharpest losses, standing above the national average (-5.5%), were seen in Rio de Janeiro (-8.6%), Espírito Santo (-8.5%), Paraná (-7.5%), São Paulo (-7.2%) and Rio Grande do Sul (-7.0%). The other negative rates were recorded by Amazonas (-5.3%), Goiás (-5.2%), Pernambuco (-3.9%), Santa  Catarina (-3.4%),Ceará (-3.0%), Bahia (-2.6%), the Northeast region (-1.9%) and Minas Gerais (-1.4%). Pará (0.9%) posted the only positive result in June 2012 in the comparison with the same month a year ago.

In the accumulated indicator of the first semester of 2012, the reduction in the output affected eight of the 14 places surveyed, with a highlight to Rio de Janeiro (-7.1), Amazonas (-6.3%),  São Paulo (-5.9%) and Espírito Santo (-5.9%), all of them posting drops above the national average (-3.8%). Santa Catarina (-3.4%), Rio Grande do Sul (-2.1%),  Ceará (-2.0%) and Minas Gerais (-1.4%) closed the set of places with negative rates in the end of the first six months of 2012. In these places, the lowest dynamism was particularly influenced by the sectors related to the reduction in the output of durable consumer goods (automobiles, motorcycles, air-conditioners, mobile phones and watches) and of capital goods (particularly trucks, tractor trucks for trailers and semi-trailers and vehicles for the transportation of goods). Another relevant influence came from the lower production in the mining and quarrying sectors (iron ore), textiles, apparel, pharmaceutical articles and basic metals.  Goiás (9.2%), Paraná (3.6%), Bahia (3.1%) and Pernambuco (2.8%) signaled the most significant advances, especially due to the biggest production of medicine in the first place, books and didactic printing in the second, thermoplastic resins in the third and basic metal products in the last. Positive results were also registered in the Northeast Region (1.8%) and Pará (1.3%).

 The regional output indicators showed that the growth in the intensity of the falling pace, observed in the national index between the first quarter of 2012 (-3.1%) and the second (-4.5%) – both comparisons against the same period a year ago – was also reflected in ten of the fourteen places surveyed.  In this kind of analysis, the greatest losses in dynamism were seen in Goiás (from 18.1% to 1.4%), Bahia (from 8.0% to -1.4%), Amazonas (from -2.0% to -10.4%), Paraná (from 7,4% to -0.1%), Espírito Santo (from -2.4% to -9.2%), Pernambuco (from 5.7% to 0.5%) and the Northeast Region (from 4.5% to -0.9%), whereas Santa Catarina (from -5.9% to -0.7%) and Pará (from -1.1% to 3.5%) had the most intense pace gains between the two periods.