Industrial output in Brazil down 0.6% in April

Brazil’s industrial production registered a 0.6 percent slip in April. The result came after a one percent uptick in the previous month. The percentage cuts short a two-month streak of decline.

Compared to the same month last year, the output fell 2.7 percent. Year to date, the production went down one percent, and 0.2 percent over the 12-month span.

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As per statistics bureau IBGE, the industry is still two percent below pre-pandemic levels (Feb. 2020) and 18.5 percent below the highest point of the time series, observed in May 2011.

Survey Manager André Macedo noted that, unlike the last three months last year, which displayed a positive balance of 1.5 percent, negative results are more prevalent early in 2023. “In April, we observed a wider spread of declines in industrial production in 16 of the 25 industrial branches surveyed. This greater range of negative figures had not been reported since October 2022,” he stated.

Sectors

According to the survey, food products (-3.2%); machinery and equipment (-9.9%); and motor vehicles, trailers, and buses (-4.6%) were the main negative influences on April’s performance. Of these, food products were responsible for the sharpest negative impact on the month, as it had its fourth consecutive month on the wane, down 7.3 percent over the period.