Services sector up 1,7% in October, fifth high in a row
Brazil’s services sector grew 1.7 percent from September to October—the first positive result in a row, with an accumulated 15.8 percent for the period. The result, however, is still not enough to compensate for the 19.8 percent losses between February and March caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The volume of services provided is 16.6 percent below the historic record reached in November 2014 and 6.1 percent below February 2020.
The data can be found in the Monthly Survey on Services, released today (11) in Rio de Janeiro by the government’s statistics agency IBGE.
The sector shrank 7.4 percent from October 2019—the eighth consecutive negative rate in this comparison. Year to date, the decline was 8.7 percent, whereas in the last 12-month the reduction reached 6.8 percent, the sharpest fall since the beginning of this time series, in December 2012.
At the turn from September to October, four of the five activities surveyed went up, chief among which information and communication (2.6%). This sector, however, still accumulates a 2.3 percent shrinkage a year. Technology and information showed recovery, and is among the few with a positive result year to date (7.4 percent).
Effects of the pandemic
Of the areas most severely hit by the pandemic, transport (1.5%) increased for the sixth month in a row, whereas services to families (4.6%) saw the third consecutive expansion. However, they still face a retraction year to date—8.5 and 37.7 percent, respectively.
The touristic activities rate experienced a growth of 7.1 percent from the previous month—in the sixth positive value in a row, a period with a cumulative increase of 102.6 percent. However, the segment still needs to expand 54.7 percent to return to its February level.
