Indicators show increase in production in May and in exports in June
Valor Econômico
Two indicators announced yesterday showed the continuity of the trend of slight recovery of the industrial production and the exports, including the production and export of manufactured goods. The production of the São Paulo industry should show growth of 3.8% in May, compared to the previous year, with the seasonal adjustment, according to the Industrial Production Index (SPI, in Portuguese) calculated by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) in partnership with AES Eletropaulo. The Brazilian foreign trade data, on its turn, presented, in the two first weeks of June, an export daily average 12% higher than May's. Within that percentage, the shipping of manufactured goods increased 11.9%; semi-manufactured goods, 13.6%; and basic goods, 12.9%.
The main basis of the index is the total electric energy load distributed by Eletropaulo in the period. The idea is that the SPI may show the trends of the industrial production of the State nearly one month before the official result, which is announced by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). Besides the total energy load, the indicator is made up of other variables, like the IBGE index of Monthly Industrial Survey (PIM), data regarding temperature, interest rates and production of automobiles.
In the second week of June, with four business days, the trade balance was positive at US$ 737 million. Exports amounted to US$ 2.508 billion and imports to US$ 1.771 billion in the period. The information were provided yesterday by the Ministry of Development. In the month, the commercial surplus accumulates US$ 1.945 billion. In the two weeks of June, foreign sales amounted to US$ 6.042 billion and imports to US$ 4.097 billion. From January until the second week of June, exports reached US$ 61.5 billion and imports US$ 50.2 billion. The commercial surplus in the period amounts to US$ 11.3 billion, a value 16.3% higher than that registered in the same period of 2008 (US$ 9.7 billion).