Brazil's Industry Has Worst May in Ten Years

07/05/2018 - 12h19

The Brazilian truck drivers' strike that stopped the country in May made the industrial production decline to the levels of 2008.

The 10.9% fall in the industrial production in May in comparison to April was the worst result since December 2008 - amid the international crisis - when the slowdown in the world's economic activity made Brazil's industrial production decline by 11.2%.

In May, the production was at a level equivalent to that of nearly 15 years ago and 23.8% below the country's production peak of May 2011, data of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) show.

The result was above analysts' expectations, who had forecasted a decline of about 13% in the indicator.

The sectors of automobiles, truck bodies and tow trucks declined by 29.8%. Food production was down 17.1%. Twenty-four of the total twenty-five industrial sectors surveyed showed declines.

Some factories did not receive supplies while others had problems to ship their production. Sectors such as automakers faced difficulties to keep the pace of work in their factories because staff could not arrive at work.

From January to April, the accumulated hike in production had reached 4.5% – when the month of May is considered, the rise amounted to 2%.

The only two activities that showed growth in May were the sectors of oil derivates and biofuels (6.3%) and extractive industries (2.3%).

In the comparison with May 2017, production dropped 6.6%; it was the biggest fall since October 2013, when it declined by 7.3%.

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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