12/03/2008 10h07
Production falls 1.7% in October, with a fall in machinery and automobiles
Valor Econômico - 12/03/2008
The effects of the international financial crisis reached the Brazilian industry in October, when there was a 1.7% fall in production in relation to September, the greatest fall in the comparison with the seasonal adjustment since November of last year, when the retreat reached 2.1%. For the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the result of October was influenced by the blanket vacations and planned stoppages (in the car sector) or non planned stoppages, mainly in intermediate goods. Compared to October of 2007, the increase was only 0.8%, despite the fact that this year's October had one business day more. YTD , the increase fell back form 6.4% until September to 5.8% up to last month. The greatest impact of the 1.7% fall in the series with the seasonal adjustment came from intermediate goods, which fell back 3%, the greatest fall since the 3.04% of October of 2001. Among the areas surveyed, the fall was pulled by other chemical products, which retreated 11.6% after falling 5% in September. According to Sales, the sector suffered with the exchange rate variation - that increased the import costs of inputs for fertilizers -, the stoppages, whether planned or not, of installations, and with blanket vacations. In three months, the sector accumulates a fall of 20.9%. In the sector of oil and alcohol refining, the fall in October achieved 9%, with prominence to the stoppage of a major refinery. The group had the second main weight in the 1.7% fall in October. Other chemical products and the refining of oil and alcohol have, each, a weight of nearly 7% in the production of the Brazilian industry, according to the IBGE. Other relevant reductions took place in machinery and equipment, with a fall of 5.2%, and automotive vehicles, which fell 1.4%. Among the other usage categories, capital goods fell 0.5% in October compared to September, whereas durable consumer goods retreated 4.7% and the semi-durable and non-durable fell 2.2%. As a result, the quarterly variable average retreated 0.6% in October, interrupting a growth of four months. The fall was the greatest since the reduction of 1.1% in September of 2005.
