Sinduscon foresees 2% growth this year
Valor Econômico
The building sector should have a 2% growth in 2009 in Brazil, marking the sixth consecutive year of growth, which will make the economic international crisis started last year less severe than the one occurred in the beginning of the da Silva Administration in terms of intensity. For the president of the Chamber of the Building Industry of the Fiemg (Federation of Industries of the State of Minas Gerais), Teodomiro Camargos, and the vice-president of the Union of the Construction Industry of the State of Minas Gerais (Sinduscon-MG), Eduardo Henrique Moreira, actions of the Federal Government and of the State Governments were decisive to stop the crisis.
According to data presented by the entrepreneurs, the physical production of the inputs for the construction fell 10.3% from January to June, compared to the same period of the previous year. The earnings of the industry of building materials fell 15.4%. The sale of cement retracted 0.9%. And the number of units financed in Brazil through the Brazilian system of savings and loans fell 8.2%. But the total amount of people employed in the country increased 5.8%.
"The level of employment continued high because the companies could not stop the commitments they had made. Now, every indicator starts to revert the trend, becoming positive. There was no time for the layoffs to occur", affirmed Camargos. Regardless of Camargos' optimism, not all data shows clear reaction. If the sale of building material increased 7% in July compared to June, the number of units financed remained low: there were 25,656 in July, compared to 25,840 in June.