Brazilian industry retreats 0.3% in January

Compared to January 2022, there was growth of 0.3%. In 12 months, the sector accumulates a drop of 0.2%, according to data published this Thursday.

“With these results, the industrial sector is 2.3% below the pre-pandemic level, that is, February 2020, and 18.8% below the record level reached in May 2011”, says the survey manager, Andre Macedo.

According to him, although industrial production has shown some improvement in behavior at the end of the year, since it marked a positive balance, it starts 2023 with a loss in production and remains far from recovering the losses of the recent past.

Eleven of the 25 industrial activities surveyed had a fall in production, from December to January, with emphasis on pharmochemical and pharmaceutical products (-13%), motor vehicles, trailers and bodies (-6%), food products (-2.1 %).

On the other hand, among the 14 growing activities, extractive industries (1.1%) and miscellaneous products (9.2%) stand out.

Among the four major economic categories of industry, only semi-durable and non-durable consumer goods did not fall from December to January, changing by 0.1%.

Capital goods, that is, machinery and equipment used in the productive sector, dropped by 4.2%. Intermediate goods, that is, industrialized inputs used in the productive sector, fell by 0.8%, while durable consumer goods fell by 1.3%.