Between December and January, the regional indexes of the industrial production fell in nine of the 14 places surveyed.

Between December and January, the regional indexes of the industrial production fell in nine of the 14 places surveyed. Pará (-13.4%) and Paraná (-11.5%) presented the most significant drops this month, the former eliminating the 4.9% increase registered in December, and the latter reversing three months of positive rates which had accumulated gains of 15.3%.  Rio de Janeiro (-5,9%) and Ceará (-3,1%) also recorded drops above the national average (-2,1%). The other negative rates were seen in the following places: São Paulo (-1.7%), Santa Catarina (-1.6%), Minas Gerais (-1.3%), Pernambuco (-1.0%) and Espírito Santo (-0.4%). Conversely, Bahia (12.6%), which eliminated the loss of 11.4% accumulated in the months of December and November, the Northeast region, Goiás (3.3%), Rio Grande do Sul (0.5%) and Amazonas (0.1%) registered positive rates in January 2012.

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

In the January 2012 / January 2011 comparison, when a downfall of 3.4% in the country’s overall was registered, the regional indexes posted a drop in seven of the fourteen places surveyed.  It is worth mentioning that January 2012 had one more workday in comparison with January 2011, with 22 and 21 days, respectively. Santa Catarina (-10.3%), Rio de Janeiro (-9.2%), Pará (-8.5%), Ceará (-8.3%) and São Paulo (-6.3%) pointed to losses above the national average. The remaining negative rates were recorded by Espírito Santo (-2.8%) and Minas Gerais (-2.4%). In the performances of those states, there is a negative trend in the segments related to capital goods (trucks) and to durable consumer goods (automobiles), which recorded relevant negative results in January 2012, due to the granting of collective vacation that affected several companies. In those places, there is also a negative influence coming from mining and quarrying (iron ore), textiles, apparel and basic metals. On the other hand, Goiás (25.4%) posted the sharpest increase, mainly reflecting the larger production in the chemical products sector (medicine). Positive results were also registered by the following places: Pernambuco (11.3%), Rio Grande do Sul (7.8%), Bahia (6.5%), Paraná (4.8%), the Northeast region (3.8%) and Amazonas (1.7%).

The signs of a reduction in the productive pace were also evident in the comparison between the last quarter of 2011 and the result of the first month of 2012 (both comparisons against the same period in the previous year), in which nine of the 14 places surveyed showed less dynamism, following the national index movement, which changed from -2.1% in the fourth quarter last year to -3.4% in January 2012. In this kind of contrast, Pará, which came from an expansion of  2.9% in the fourth quarter of 2011 to a downfall of 8.5% in January 2012, Paraná (from 15.1% to 4.8%), Rio de Janeiro (from -2.6% to -9.2%), Espírito Santo (from 2.9% to -2.8%) and Amazonas (from 6.6% to 1.7%) posted the most substantial reductions, whereas Goiás (from 9.7% to 25.4%) and Bahia (from -4.5% to 6.5%) registered the greatest increases in pace between the two periods. 

In the index accumulated in the last twelve months, the national overall posted a decrease of 0.2% in last January, the first negative result since March 2010 (-0.3%), and kept the downward trend started in October 2010 (11.8%). As far as the regions are concerned, seven of the 14 places surveyed also presented negative rates in January this year and revealed less dynamism compared to the closing of 2011. The sharpest negative rates were seen in Ceará (-11.4%), Santa Catarina (-6.2%), in the Northeast region (-3.8%) and Bahia (-3.2%), whereas Goiás (8.5%), Paraná (6.1%), Espírito Santo (5.7%) and Amazonas (4.0%) recorded the most important gains.