São Paulo – Industrial output in Brazil decreased by 6.6% in 2016 from 2015, with drops in all four major categories (capital goods, intermediate goods, durable consumer goods, and semi-durable/non-durable consumer goods), as well as in 23 of 26 subsectors, 63 of 79 subgroups, and for 72.8% of 805 product types tracked by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The data were made public this Wednesday (1st).
Chief among industry activities where production increased were food products (0.6%) AND pulp, paper and paper products (2.5%). Conversely, extractive industries (-9.4%), petcoke, petroleum-based products and biofuels (-8.5%) and automobiles, trailers and semi-trailers (-11.4%) pulled down overall results.
Industry production climbed by 2.3% in December from November, in the second straight month-on-month increase, but dropped by 0.1% year-on-year – the 34th back-to-back drop in this type of comparison.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
