Small industries have positive prospects for the coming months
The Performance Index of these industries varied during the first quarter of 2024, with an increase of 0.4 points from December to January, a decrease of 0.4 points from January to February. And an increase of 0.7 points in March, ending the quarter with 44.6 points.
The president of the São Paulo Economists Union, Carlos Eduardo Oliveira Júnior, assesses that these indices are reflections of the improvement in the economy, with an inflation rate under control, unemployment falling — and an increase in the level of employment.
“The trend in the coming months is for an improvement, where you improve the economy as a whole, making the outlook for the coming quarters an improvement”, he comments.
Main problems of small industries
According to the research, in the first quarter of this year the high tax burden was identified as the main problem faced by the manufacturing and construction industries in Brazil, with 38.7% and 32.0% of citations, respectively.
Additionally, the lack or high cost of skilled workers emerged as a significant issue, ranking second in the construction industry with 28.2% of mentions; and third in the manufacturing industry, with 25.6% — both registering an increase of 1.2 percentage points compared to the previous quarter.
Paula Verlangeiro, Policy and Industry Analyst at CNI, highlights that, for the manufacturing industry, this percentage was the highest recorded in the historical series for this problem.
“So it shows that small-scale manufacturers are facing difficulties both in finding these qualified professionals and in keeping them”, he explains.
Small Industry Panorama
The Small Industry Panorama uses four indicators to evaluate the sector: performance, financial situation, prospects and confidence index — all measured on a scale of 0 to 100 points, where higher scores indicate better performance.
These indicators are made up of factors such as production volume, number of employees, use of installed capacity, operating profit, financial conditions, access to credit, demand expectations — and investment and hiring plans.
See more:
Confidence in the services sector falls to 94.8 and drops 1 point in April
Service sector revenue volume decreased by 0.9% in February; points research
By Brasil 61
