In the comparison with July 2011, which stayed in -2.9% for the country’s Industry overall in July 2012, the regional indexes receded in nine of the 14 places surveyed. It is a better result than the one seen last June, when the national overall posted a drop of 5.6% and five places registered negative rates. It is worth mentioning that, besides the slight gain in the two last months, July 2012 (22) had one more work day than the same month a year ago (21). This month, the most remarkable losses were seen in Amazonas (-14,9%) and Goiás (-11,5%), pushed at a great extent by the negative behavior of the products related to the sector  of durable consumer goods, with a highlight to the production of motorcycles, mobile phones, television sets and watches, in the first place, and of medicine, in the second. Paraná (-7.8%), Espírito Santo (-6.9%), Pará (-6.4%), Rio Grande do Sul (-6.4%), São Paulo (-5.6%) and Rio de Janeiro (-4.1) also posted drops in the production above the national average (-2.9%). Santa Catarina (-0.2%) and Minas Gerais (0.3%) registered almost stable rates in the monthly index of July 2012. On the other hand, Pernambuco (3.3%), the Northeast Region (2.8%), Bahia (2.7%) and Ceará (2.5%) posted the sharpest positive results as compared to the same month a year ago.

In the accumulated indicator of January- July 2012, the reduction in the production affected the greatest part (eight) of the 14 places surveyed, with a highlight to Amazonas (-7.6%), Rio de Janeiro (-6.6), Espírito Santo (6.0%), and São Paulo (-5.9%), all of them posting drops above the national average (-3.7%). Rio Grande do Sul (-2.9%), Santa Catarina (-2.9%), Ceará (-1.4%) and Minas Gerais (-1.2%) closed the set of places with negative rates in the end of the first seven months of 2012. In these places the lowest dynamism was particularly influenced by the sectors related to the reduction in the production 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 mining and quarrying sectors (iron ore), textiles, apparel, pharmaceutical articles and basic metals.   On the other hand, Goiás (5.7%), Pernambuco (4.1%), Bahia (2.9%), the Northeast Region (2.1%) and Paraná (1.8%) signaled positive results in the accumulated index of the year, whereas Pará (0.0%) remained stable against the same period a year ago. 

Between June and July, the regional indexes of the industrial output dropped in nine of the 14 places surveyed. The sharpest drops were in Goiás (-6.3%), Amazonas (-5.9%) and Pará (-3.2%), whereas Paraná (-1.1%), São Paulo (-0.7%), Rio Grande Grande do Sul (-0.7%), Espírito Santo (-0.6%), Pernambuco (-0.6%) and Minas Gerais (-0.2%) posted more moderate decreases.   Five of the 14 paces surveyed presented growth, the highlight was Rio de Janeiro (4.6%), which recovered part of the loss of 5.1% registered in the previous month. The remaining positive results were registered in the Northeast region (0.9%), Bahia (0.4%), Ceará (0.4%) and Santa Catarina (0.2%).  The complete publication of this survey can be accessed at www.ibge.gov.br/english/estatistica/indicadores/industria/pimpfregional/.