Brasília – The Brazilian industry output was up in October according to a survey of businessmen carried out by the National Federation of Industry (CNI, in the Portuguese acronym). The production evolution indicator has gone from 47.1 points in September to 54.9 points in October. The use of installed capacity (UIC) was up 03 points to 46.8 points, near the 50-point threshold, which indicates that idleness has decreased. According to the survey methodology, scores higher than 50 points indicate that variables have evolved positively.
To the CNI, the increased output is due to adjustments in industrial inventories, which have declined. The indicator of actual inventories as opposed to planned ones stood at 50.5 points, a result deemed positive. Still, despite the increased output in October, industrial employment remained stable for the third consecutive month, at 50.2 points. To the CNI economist Marcelo Ávila, the reason for said stability and the below-50 UIC is that “the recovery of industrial activity occurs slowly.”
Businessmen are expecting activity to slow down in the coming six months. They forecast a decline due to seasonality. Towards the end of the year, there usually is a decrease in output, which is high in October because Christmas and the New Year are drawing near. The indicator of expectation concerning demand in the next six months was down from 56.9 points to 55.7 points.
The survey was conducted from October 1st to 14th and covered 1,796 businesses from across the country. Of those, 628 are small, 690 are medium, and 478 are large.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
