According to figures disclosed by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), boosted by the greater exports and supply to the domestic market, Brazil’s industrial production has been recovering since January, after two months running of reductions.
The Monthly Industrial Research shows that industrial production rose 16% over January 2009, when the economy was suffering due to the economic crisis, and 1.1% from December to January this year, recovering the 1% loss accumulated in the last months of last year.
“Not only exports, but also industrial supply for the domestic market helped boost the activity in January and in the previous months,” explained IBGE economist André Macedo, with regard to middle goods, one of the main boosters.
According to the IBGE, the positive result for industry was boosted by 8.6% growth of production of durable consumer goods, 2% in middle goods and an 0.4% rise in semi-consumer and non-durable goods, in the comparison between January and February.
With regard to the same period last year, the categories advanced 36.4%, 20.2% and 5.8%, respectively.
The only category with a negative result in the research between December and January was capital goods, with a reduction of 0.1%, after nine months rising (29%).
The 1.1% growth in January still reflects expansion in 14 of the 27 sectors researched, with special attention to electronic and communications material (14.3%), metal (12%) and beverages (8.1%). Negative results were identified in the printing (-5%) and pharmaceutical (-2.2%) sectors.
Apart from expansion of exports and of the domestic market, Macedo recalls that the low basis for comparison favored the result for the industry when compared with 2009.
“The growth is related based on repressed demand, but it is not possible to take into consideration the expansion of production itself,” he said.
