São Paulo retakes top of industrial growth
Folha de S. Paulo - 02/12/2008
Despite having ranked sixth place among the 14 regions surveyed by the IBGE on the year's average, the industry of São Paulo ended last year with the best performance of the country. In the fourth quarter of 2007, the industry of São Paulo registered a growth of 9.3% compared to the same period of the previous year. The most interesting fact is that São Paulo retook the position of leader of the industry even though the State of Minas Gerais, whose performance last year had the best average, did not registered any fall in its growth. Minas expanded 9% in the last quarter of 2007. The recovery of São Paulo is important because it is the region of the country with the most complete and integrated industrial structure, which can be important to provide continuity or even extend the expansion of the sector nationwide. Even though it ended the year in the leadership, it took long for São Paulo to start growing at the same pace of other regions with better performance, such as Minas Gerais. According to the Iedi, it was only when the industrial expansion advanced more and there was better distribution of the expansion, led by the sectors of machinery and equipment and by the car industry, that the industry of São Paulo started to lead the process.