10/29/2008 14h18
Industrial activity grows 3.7%
Gazeta Mercantil 10/29/2008
The level of the São Paulo industrial activity of transformation advanced 3.7% in September, compared to August, considering the seasonal adjustments. The Activity Level Indicator (ALI) measured by the Federation of the Industries of the State of São Paulo (Fiesp), increased 1.9% without the seasonal adjustments, in the comparison between the months of September and August. In the accumulated of the first nine months of this year, the indicator advanced 7.8% compared to the same period in 2007. In the comparison between September of 2008 and last year's same month, the ALI advanced 7.7%. "The month of September did not show any indications of the crisis, which is even natural, if we consider that the crisis' worsening occurred exactly in the middle of the month", affirmed Paulo Francini, Fiesp's director of the Research and Economic Studies Department. He evaluates that the good performance of the economy in the first three quarters of the year indicates that 2008's figures, because of lack of time, will not be greatly affected by the financial crisis. However, Francini said that he believed that the performance of the activity level of the São Paulo transformation industry should show signs of a slowdown in the next months. "The group of perceptions obtained among the industries in October allows affirming that the positive expectation have disappeared, but it was not replaced by a negative expectation", he highlighted. Francini kept the growth expectation for the Brazilian Gross Domestic Product (PIB) in 5.4% this year and nearly 5% for the increase of the activity of the industry.
