Brasília – Brazilian economic activity declined in May. The Index of Economic Activity (IBC-Br) of the Brazilian Central Bank (BC), seasonally adjusted, suffered a decline of 3.34% in comparison to April, according to data released this Monday (16). The drop follows a 0.5% growth in April over March.
In May, the country was impacted by the supply crisis caused by the truckers’ strike at the end of the month. In comparison to the same month of 2017 (with no season adjustment), there was a decline of 2.9%. Year-to-date, there’s a 0.73% growth. Year-over-year, also a growth of 1.13%.
IBC-Br is used to assess the improvement of the Brazilian economic activity. The indicator was created by the BC to try to anticipate, approximately, the improvement of the economic activity. But the official indicator is the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), measured by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
