Rio de Janeiro – The confidence of Brazilian services sector entrepreneurs in the economy increased in April. The Services Confidence Index (ICS, in the Portuguese acronym), disclosed this Wednesday (4th) by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), grew by 3% compared with the previous month, having gone from 131.3 to 135.3 points. The result is the third highest ever, the top two being those of March 2010, when the score was 135.5 points, and August 2008, at 138.4 points.
According to the survey, the increase in confidence in April reflects the improved assessment of the present moment. The Current Situation Index (ISA-S) climbed 5.5% from March to April, from 115.5 to 121.8 points, the highest since December 2010 (128.9). In March, the indicator had declined by 4%, which may indicate seasonal influence, according to the FGV, considering that this year in Brazil, Carnival took place in March.
The current level of demand was the aspect that contributed the most to the increase in the index. The share of businessmen who rated the current demand as strong went from 23.8% to 26.2%, whereas the share of those who rated it as week dropped from 15.5% to 11.5%.
The Expectations Index (IE-S) went from 147.2 points, in March, to 148.9 points in April, the highest level since March last year (153.0). The increase was influenced by the indicator that measures the degree of optimism of businessmen regarding the business environment in the next six months.
To conduct the survey, the FGV interviewed executives in charge of 2,370 services sector companies. The data were collected from April 4th to 28th.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
