São Paulo – The participation of exports in industrial sales dropped in the first quarter of this year as against the last quarter of 2012, according to the Industrial Openness Index disclosed on Wednesday (15) by the National Confederation of Industries (CNI).
The study also shows that participation of industrial products imported into the domestic market reached 22% in the period, an expansion of 0.4 percentage point in the same comparison.
According to a press statement disclosed by the CNI, the percentage of exports in industrial sales dropped from 20.6% over the last three months in 2012 to 20.4% in the first three months of this year, a performance that interrupts the recovery of this index, which had started in the third quarter of 2010. The document shows that weak demand, exchange appreciation and lower prices are among the reasons for lower participation in exports.
In a press statement, CNI economist Marcelo Azevedo stated that the cuts in taxes levied on industry announced by the federal government are not enough to revert the performance and increase sector productivity. He also said that the index shows loss of competitiveness in domestic industry as against imported products.
According to a research by the CNI, the mining industry was the one that presented the greatest expansion in participation of imported products: 2.2% and total participation of 47.2% in the sector in the period. Still according to the CNI analysis, if the Brazilian economy returns to growth at lower rates, the consumption of imported products should rise even further.
*Translated by Mark Ament
