São Paulo – The Industrial Confidence Index (ICI), measured by the Brazilian Economics Institute (Ibre), an institution connected to Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), grew 1.9% from January to February and reached 115.8 points, in the 13th expansion running. This is the third best result since the index started being recorded, in 1995, and is only lower than the results for the months of November (116.9 points) and December (116.0 points) of 2007. On a scale from 0 to 200, results above 100 are considered good.
The Transformation Industry Analysis showed mainly sector optimism for coming months. The Expectation Index (IE) grew 3.3% (from 114.5 points to 118.3 points), the largest figure since it started being recorded, for the sixth month running exceeding the Current Situation Index (ISA), which rose 0.7% (from 112.6 points to 113.4 points).
“The high level of entrepreneurial optimism is evident in the favourable forecasts for new hiring and in perspectives for business over the next six months,” pointed out the FGV. The future employment index reached 128.3 points, the best result since July 1986 (129.7).
In the study, with 1,056 companies, 31.3% of those interviewed showed the intention of expanding their number of employees between February and April, a percentage higher than the 26.5% of January. The proportion of those planning to dismiss employees dropped, from 5.7% in January to 3% in February. There was also expansion of the Level of Use of Installed Capacity (Nuci), from 83.8% to 84.0%, the largest figure since October 2008 (85.1%). Among the sectors expanding is the capital goods sector (from 82.0% to 82.9%).
*Translated by Mark Ament
