Brazil’s Industrial Production Declines 3.8 Percent in August

By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL –Brazil’s industrial production in August declined 3.8 percent in relation to July, according to data from the IBGE (Brazilian Statistical Bureau), the steepest decline since January of 2012 when the index dipped 4.9 percent.

“The decline in August interrupts five consecutive months of growth,” said IBGE Industry Department manager, André Macedo, adding three of the four large economic categories and 21 of the 24 industrial sectors analyzed registered a decline in production.

In comparison with August 2015 the decrease of 5.2 percent, the thirtieth consecutive decline in this type of comparison. During the first eight months of the year, industrial production in the country has fallen by 8.2 percent.

According to the Bureau, the August index shows that in the four large economic categories consumer durables fell by 9.3 percent while semi-durable and non-durable declined by 0.9 percent and raw materials used in the production fell by 4.3 percent. The only category registering a growth was capital goods (machinery and equipment) which increased by 0.4 percent.

Among the 24 industrial sectors, the main negative influences were registered by the food product segment (-8.0 percent) and the motor vehicles, trailers and auto parts segment (-10.4 percent). The index also shows that only pharmaceutical products (8.3 percent) and metal products (one percent) registered growth.

Forecasts by analysts show that Brazil’s industrial production should decline even further in the coming months. At the end of September the financial market predicted that industrial production would decline a total of 5.96 percent this year, and would register a slight growth of 1.10 percent in 2017.