The pace of decline in the national industrial output between February and March in the seasonally adjusted series occurred in seven of the 14 places (Mato Grosso, included in the survey from now on, does not present enough results to take part of the seasonally adjusted series), with a highlight to the sharpest drops seen in Rio Grande do Sul (-3.0%), Paraná (-2.1%) and Bahia (-2.0%). With this month's results, the first place offset part of the 8.5% growth registered in the months of January and February; the second place reverted two months of expansion and registered a cumulative gain of 7.1%; and the last place dropped again after having advanced 4.2% last February. Rio de Janeiro (-1.0%) and São Paulo (-0.9%) also posted results above he national average (-0.5%), whereas Ceará (-0.5%) and Minas Gerais (-0.2%) closed the set of places with negative results this month. On the other hand, Pernambuco (2.8%), Amazonas (1.7%), Pará (1.6%), Espírito Santo (1.3%), Santa Catarina (1.1%), Goiás (1.0%) and the Northeast Region (0.2%) recorded the positive rates this month. The complete publication of this survey can be accessed at www.ibge.gov.br/english/estatistica/indicadores/industria/2014/pimpfregional/.

Still concerning the seasonally adjusted series, the evolution of the quarterly moving average index for the overall industry pointed to an expansion of 0.6% in the quarter ended in March against the level of the previous month, interrupting the downward trend started in October last year. In regional terms, still in relation to the movement of this index on the margin, seven places recorded positive rates in March: Santa Catarina (2.2%), Minas Gerais (2.0%), São Paulo (1.8%), Rio Grande do Sul (1.6%), Paraná (1.5%), Amazonas (1.4%) and the Northeast Region (1.4%). Goiás (-0.7%), Espírito Santo (-0.6%), Pernambuco (-0.3%) and Bahia (-0.2%) registered the negative figures in March 2014, while Pará (0.0%), Rio de Janeiro (0.0%) and Ceará (0.0%) recorded a null change.

In the comparison with the same month last year, the reduction reported by the national output reached seven out of the 15 places surveyed in March 2014. March 2014 (18 days) had less two working days than the same month in the previous year (20). The declines higher than the national average in March (-0.9%) were posted in Mato Grosso (-9.6%), Goiás (-4.4%), São Paulo (-4.0%), Paraná (-3.3%), Rio de Janeiro (-2.4%) and Espírito Santo (-2.1%), whereas Ceará registered a more moderate drop by negatively changing 0.4%. Pará (13.6%), Pernambuco (12.5%), the Northeast Region (8.4%) and Santa Catarina (6.1%) recorded the most intense advances. Minas Gerais (3.0%), Bahia (1.5%), Amazonas (1.4%) and Rio Grande do Sul (0.9%) were the other places that recorded positive rates.

In the cumulative indicator of the first quarter of the year, the overall industry expanded in nine out of the 15 places surveyed: Pernambuco (9.9%), Amazonas (8.1%), Pará (6.2%), Minas Gerais (4.1%), Santa Catarina (4.0%), the Northeast Region (3.6%), Paraná (3.3%), Rio Grande do Sul (3.1%) and Ceará (1.2%). In these places, the higher dynamism was particularly influenced by factors related to the increased manufacturing of durable consumer goods (brown goods and motorcycles) and of semi and non-durable consumer goods (wearing apparel and accessories, food products, pharm-chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and coke, petroleum products and biofuels), as well as by the positive performance coming from the mining and quarrying industries (iron ore). Espírito Santo (-4.0%), São Paulo (-2.9%), Bahia (-2.5%), Rio de Janeiro (-1.9%), Goiás (-1.8%) and Mato Grosso (-0.8%) posted the negative rates in the cumulative index of the year.

On a quarterly basis, the industrial sector sustained positive indexes for six quarters in a row, yet showing more moderate rates in the last two quarters: 0.2% in the October-December 2013 period and 0.4% in the first three months of 2014, both compared with the same periods last year. In regional terms, six out of the 15 places surveyed gained dynamism and followed the national index, highlighted by Minas Gerais, which passed from -2.8% in the last quarter of 2013 to 4.1% in the January-March period of 2014, Pernambuco (from 4.5% to 9.9%) and the Northeast Region (from -0.6% to 3.6%). In the same type of comparison, Mato Grosso (from 13.2% to -0.8%), Goiás (from 7.4% to -1.8%) and Rio Grande do Sul (from 7.0% to 3.1%) registered the highest reductions of pace between the two periods.

By advancing 2.1% in March 2014, the annualized rate - cumulative indicator in the last 12 months - repeated the figure registered last February, though slightly below the figure recorded in December 2013 (2.3%). In regional terms, 12 out of the 15 places surveyed recorded positive rates in March this year, eight of them showing more dynamism than the index last February. The major gains between February and March were posted in Pará (from -2.0% to -0.2%), Pernambuco (from 3.6% to 5.2%) and Santa Catarina (from 6.6% to 7.4%), whereas the most important loss was registered in Goiás (from 4.1% to 3.2%).