Industrial production in Brazil experienced a 0.3% increase in May compared to the previous month, according to the Monthly Industrial Survey (PIM) released by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
This growth follows a decline of 0.6% in April. When compared to May 2022, the sector registered a growth of 1.9%.
The quarterly moving average also showed a 0.3% advancement.
However, despite these positive signs, the indicator has recorded a 0.4% drop for the year and remained stable over the 12-month period.
The survey manager, André Macedo, highlighted that the industrial sector is still below pre-pandemic levels, specifically 1.5% below February 2020 levels and 18.1% below the record level achieved in May 2011.
Although there has been a 1.5% increase in industrial production in the last three months of 2022 and a positive balance of 0.4% at the beginning of 2023 compared to the previous year, the sector has not yet fully recovered from the losses experienced in recent years.
Nineteen out of the 25 industrial branches analyzed in the survey showed growth compared to April, with notable increases in coke, petroleum products, and biofuels (7.7%), automotive vehicles, trailers, and truck bodies (7.4%), and machinery and equipment (12.3%).
On the other hand, the main declines were observed in food products (-2.6%) and petrochemical and pharmaceutical products (-9.7%).
Among the four main economic categories, three experienced growth from April to May: durable consumer goods (9.8%), capital goods (4.2%), which includes machinery and equipment used in the production sector, and intermediate goods (0.1%), which are industrialized inputs used in the production sector.
Semi-durable and non-durable consumer goods, however, recorded a decline of -1.1% during this period.