Between July and August 2012, the regional indexes of the industrial output showed positive rates in nine of the 14 places surveyed by IBGE, following the upward trend of the national production, in the seasonally adjusted series.  Goiás, growing 10.3%, marked the sharpest advance, removing part of the drop of 13.3% seen in July. The other places that recorded output expansion above the national average (1.5%) were: Amazonas (7.6%), which eliminated the fall of 5.5% seen in last July; Rio Grande do Sul (4.8%), Minas Gerais (3.3%), Paraná (3.0%) and São Paulo (2.7%), whereas Rio de Janeiro (0.6%), Santa Catarina (0.5%) and Bahia (0.1%) closed the set of places with positive rates. On the other hand, Espírito Santo (-2.4%) and Ceará (-1.5%) registered the most substantial decreases, while Pará and Pernambuco, both with -0.7%, posted more moderated drops. The Northeast region (0.0%) repeated the previous month’s pattern, after two consecutive months of output expansion.

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In the index accumulated in the last twelve months, the national overall, after retracting 2.9% in August 2012, went on with the downward trend started in October 2010 (11.8%) and registered the sharpest negative result since January 2010 (-5.0%). In regional terms, eight of the 14 places surveyed also showed negative rates, with a highlight to the losses seen in Rio de Janeiro (-4.9%), São Paulo (-4.8%), Santa Catarina (-4.2%), Ceará (-3.6%) and Espírito Santo (-3.5%), whereas Goiás (7.0%), Paraná (3.9%) and Pernambuco (3.8%) posted the main gains.

The greater dynamism in the output pace was also evident in the quarterly moving average index, once the quarter closed in August showed a growth of 0.8% against the previous month and interrupted the predominantly negative behavior seen since August 2011. In regional terms, still in relation to this index on margin, seven of the 14 places surveyed also marked positive results. The highlights were the advances seen in Amazonas (2.3%), Minas Gerais (1.6%), São Paulo (1.0%) and Bahia (1.0%). On the other hand, the largest contractions were seen in Pará (-3.4%), Goiás (-1.5%) and Ceará (-1.2%).

In the comparison between August 2012/August 2011, nine of the 14 places surveyed shrank the output.  The most significant losses were recorded by Paraná (-10.8%) and Espírito Santo (-7.5%), pushed at a great extent by the negative behavior in the production of books and trucks, in the first place, and of the sectors of basic metals and mining and quarrying, in the second.  The other negative results were observed in Pará (-5.7%), Rio de Janeiro (-5.6%), São Paulo (-4.6%), Amazonas (-4.6%), Ceará (-2.2%), Santa Catarina (-2.2%) and Rio Grande do Sul (-1.5%). On the other hand, Minas Gerais (4.6%), Goiás (3.7%), Bahia (3.4%), the Northeast region (1.7%) and Pernambuco (1.5%) had positive results in the comparison with the same month a year ago. The national average recorded in August stood at -2.0%.

In the accumulated index for the January-August 2012 period, the output reduction achieved nine of the 14 places surveyed. The highlights were Amazonas (-7.2%), Rio de Janeiro (-6.5%), Espírito Santo (-6.2%) and São Paulo (-5.6%). They recorded drops above the national average (-3.4%). Santa Catarina (-2.8%), Rio Grande do Sul (-2.7%), Ceará (-1.5%), Pará (-0.8%) and Minas Gerais (-0.4%) close the set of places with negative rates in the end of the first eight months of 2012. In those places, the lower dynamism is particularly due to the sectors related to the reduction in the output of durable consumer goods (automobiles, motorcycles, air-conditioners, cell phones and watches), as well as to the lower production in the mining and quarrying industries (iron ore), textiles, apparel, pharmaceutical products and basic metals.     On the other hand, Goiás (5.3%), Pernambuco (3.8%), Bahia (3.1%), the Northeast region (2.2%) and Paraná (0.2%) had positive results in the index accumulated in the year.