MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian industry slides for second straight month

February's results were influenced by a calendar effect, Macedo explained

According to the Monthly Industrial Survey released Wednesday by Brazil's Rio de Janeiro-based Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), industrial production in South America's largest country fell 0.3% in February, which represented its second straight monthly decline after January's -1.5%, Agencia Brasil reported.

Despite these figures, Brazil's industry has grown by 1% year on year. In January 2024, this annual accumulation was 0.4%. The current level of Brazilian industrial production is 1.1% below the pre-pandemic level of February 2020 and 17.7% below the series peak in May 2011.

Comparing February with January this year, ten of the 25 industrial sectors surveyed showed decreasing numbers, particularly chemical products (-3.5%), extractive industries (-0.9%), and pharmaceuticals (-6.0%). Regarding broad economic categories, the intermediate goods sector fell by 1.2%, the only negative rate of the four groups surveyed.

The automotive industry -vehicles plus spare parts- recorded a 6.5% increase, while pulp, paper, and its byproducts recorded a 5.8% progress.

Consumer durables advanced 3.6%, showing the strongest growth after also advancing in January (1.5%) and December 2023 (6.6%). Capital goods (1.8%) and semi and non-durable consumer goods (0.4%) also recorded positive results.

Comparing February 2024 with February 2023, there was a 5% increase. In this type of comparison - the month with the same period in the previous year - this was the seventh increase in a row and the most significant since June 2021 (when the result was 12.1%, in a hiccup of partial recovery from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic).

”The February result had a widespread profile of positive rates and was the highest since June 2021 (12.1%), being influenced not only by the low basis of comparison but also by the calendar effect, since February 2024 had 19 working days, one more than February 2023,” IBGE Survey Manager André Macedo explained.

(Source: Agencia Brasil)