Rio de Janeiro – Brazilian industrial production declined by 2.1% in April compared with the previuos month, when a 1.1% increase had been recorded. It is the sharpest decline since December 2008, when the sector’s output dropped by 12.2%, influenced by the international financial crisis. In comparison with April of last year, there was a decline of 1.3%.
The figures disclosed today (31st) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE, in the Portuguese acronym) also show that in the first four months of the year, national industry grew by 1.6%. The rate, however, is lower than the first quarter’s (2.6%). Over the last 12-month period, industrial production grew by 5.4%.
The document points out that from March to April there was a reduction in output for 13 out of 27 sectors surveyed, the highlights being machinery and equipment (-5.4%), metal products (-9.3%), automobiles (-2.8%), foodstuffs (-2. 4%), machinery, devices and electric materials (-7.6%) and oil refinement and ethanol production (-1.4%).
Sectors whose production grew during the period include the pharmaceutical industry (3.3%), extractive industries (2.5%), tobacco (20.6%), basic metallurgy (1.4%), medical and hospital instruments, optical instruments and others (6.6%) and “other chemicals” (1.1%).
When compared with 2010, the survey points out that the index of –1.3% was virtually the same as the one recorded in the comparison between the first four months of 2010 and 2009 (-1.4%). There was a decline in production across 16 out of 27 sectors surveyed, especially foodstuffs (-8.2%), machinery and equipment (-5.8%), textiles (-15.2%), machinery, devices and electric materials (-10.3%), oil refinement and ethanol production (-3.5%) and metal products (-5.8%).
In the four-month comparison, sectors that grew the most were pharmaceuticals (17.6%), driven by the manufacturing of larger volumes of medication; and “other transport equipment” (9.7%), the highlight being aircraft and motorcycle production.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
