The declining pace of the national industrial output between February and March 2017, in the seasonally-adjusted series, was recorded in eight of the 14 places surveyed.

The highlight was Santa Catarina (-4.0%), which interrupted a four-consecutive-month period of positive rates and accumulated an expansion of 7.0%. Ceará (-3.1%), Paraná (-2.9%), Minas Gerais (-2.8%) and Pará (-2.7%) also registered stronger drops than the ones seen in the National level (-1.8%), whereas São Paulo (-1.7%), Rio Grande do Sul (-1.2%) and Espírito Santo (-0.7%) closed the set of places with output reduction this month. Pernambuco (0.0%) repeated the level recorded last February.

On the other hand, Amazonas (5.7%) had the sharpest positive result in March 2017, eliminating the 2.5% drop seen in the previous month. The other positive rates were recorded by Bahia (2.0%), Rio de Janeiro(0.7%), Goiás (0.5%) and Northeast Region (0.1%).

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Short-term Indicators of Industry
Regional Results

 March 2017

Source: IBGE, Diretoria de Pesquisas, Coordenação de Indústria
* Seasonally-adjusted series

In the seasonally-adjusted series, the evolution of the index of the quarterly moving average for the total of the industry recorded a 0.7% drop in the quarter ended in March 2017 over the previous month level and interrupted the sequence of positive rates initiated in December 2016. By areas, still in relation to the movement of the index on margin, ten places registered negative rates, with a highlight to the sharper drops recorded by Ceará (-2.8%), Pernambuco (-1.5%) and Pará (-1.0%). On the other hand, Goiás (2.3%), Rio de Janeiro (1.3%) and Amazonas (1.3%) recorded the main advances in March 2017.

In relation to March 2016, industry up in eight of 15 places surveyed

Compared with the same month a year ago, the industrial sector expanded 1.1% in March 2017, with eight of the 15 places surveyed registering positive results. It is worth mentioning that March 2017 (23 days) had one more workday than March 2016 (22). This month, Goiás (8.0%) and Rio Grande do Sul (7.4%) reported the sharpest advances, leveraged mainly by the production growth coming from the food sector (fresh or cooled beef, sterilized milk/UHT/Long Life and powdered milk, cake, bagasse, crumbs and other residue of soybean oil extraction and refined and crude soybean oil) in the first place; of beverages (grape wine) and machinery and equipment (agriculture tractors and harvest machines) in the second one. Rio de Janeiro (6.1%), Santa Catarina (5.9%), Paraná (4.9%), Espírito Santo (2.4%) and Minas Gerais (2.4%) also registered higher positive rates than the industry average (1.1%), whereas São Paulo (0.9%) closed the set of places with output expansion this month. On the other hand, Amazonas (-7.3%) registered the sharpest drop of 2017, pushed, to a great extent, by the negative behavior coming from the beverage sector (powder preparations for beverages) and coke, petroleum products and biofuels (diesel oil, naphthas for petrochemical industries and motor gasoline). The other negative results were seen in Bahia (-4.3%), Ceará (-3.8%), Pará (-2.6%), the Northeast Region (-2.5%), Pernambuco (-0.8%) and Mato Grosso (-0.3%).

Cumulative index of the year grows in 12 of 15 places

In the cumulative indicator for the period of January-March 2017, over the same period of the previous year, the increase seen in the national output reached 12 of the 15 places, with a highlight to the sharper advances posted by Goiás (6.6%), Santa Catarina (5.2%), Rio de Janeiro (3.6%), Paraná (4.6%), Pernambuco (4.2%), Espírito Santo (4.0%) and Minas Gerais (3.6%). Rio Grande do Sul (1.9%), Amazonas (1.3%), Pará (0.6%), Mato Grosso (0.4%) and São Paulo (0.1%) close the set of places with positive results in the end of the first quarter of the year. In these places, the greatest dynamism was particularly influenced by the manufacture of capital goods (especially those related to the construction and agriculture sector); of intermediate goods (iron ores, petroleum, pulp, steel industry, car parts and soybeans derivatives); of durable consumer goods (cars and white and brown goods); and of semi- and non- durable consumer goods (poultry, beverages, textiles and wearing apparel). On the other hand, Bahia (-8.3%) recorded the sharpest drop in the cumulative index of the year, pushed mainly by the negative behavior coming from the sectors of coke, petroleum products and biofuels (Diesel fuel, oil fuels and naphthas for petrochemical industry) and of basic metals (cooper and aluminum alloy bars, profiles and rebars). The remaining negative results were recorded by the Northeast Region (-2.5%) and Ceará (-2.2%).

The evidences of growth in the producing pace were also present in the comparison of the index of the last quarter of 2016 with the result of the first three months of 2017, both comparisons against the same periods of the previous year, in which 12 of the 15 places surveyed showed dynamism gain, following the movement of the national index, which moved from -3.3% to 0.6%. In this same comparison, Goiás (-9.7% to 6.6%), Espírito Santo (-6.8% to 4.0%), Mato Grosso (-8.2% to 0.4%), Minas Gerais (-3.6% to 3.6%), Santa Catarina (-0.8% to 5.2%) and Pernambuco (-0.7% to 4.2%) recorded the greatest advances, whereas Pará (7.0% to 0.6%) recorded the main loss among the two periods.

In 12 months, industry remains down in 14 of 15 places

Having declined 3.8% in March 2017 for the national industry overall, the annualized rate - cumulative indicator in the last 12 months - remained at a pace of decline as started in June 2016 (-9.7%). In regional terms, 14 of the 15 places surveyed recorded negative rates in March 2017, but thirteen had a greater dynamism over the indexes of last February. The main pace gains between February and March 2017 were recorded by Pernambuco (-3.4% to -1.4%), Espírito Santo (-14.9% to -13.0%), Rio Grande do Sul (-3.5% to -1.9%), Rio de Janeiro (-2.1% to -0.7%), Goiás (-3.4% to -2.1%), São Paulo (-3.5%  to -2.3%) and Santa Catarina (-1.3% to -0.1%), whereas Pará (7.6% to 6.9%) and Mato Grosso (-2.7% to -3.3%) recorded the losses between the two periods.