Industrial production in Brazil fell 9.1% in March with the coronavirus



Industrial production in Brazil fell by 9.1% in March, compared to February, "reflecting the effects of social isolation caused by the coronavirus pandemic," as reported on Tuesday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

According to the state agency, the factories of the largest South American economy also reduced their production in the comparison with March 2019 (-3.8%) and presented negative numbers in the accumulated figure for the first quarter (-1.7%) and in the last twelve months (-1.0%).

The reduction in the month-to-month comparison was the most pronounced from the negative 11% that occurred in May 2018, when much of the country's economic activity was paralyzed due to a truckers' strike.

In March, when social isolation and containment measures began to contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus with the first death recorded in the country, the four categories and 23 of the 26 sectors analyzed by IBGE for their production statistics Industrial presented red numbers.

"The activity that had the most important negative impact was that of motor vehicles, containers and bodies (-28%)," IBGE Studies manager André Macedo said in a statement, highlighting that within this activity the segment that The car production suffered the most.

Also "the segment of trucks presents losses, like that of auto parts. The quarantine movement caused many companies to interrupt their production process, either granting collective vacations or paralyzing activities for certain periods," he said.

The auto industry, prolonging the negative results of March cited by the IBGE, accentuated its losses in April.

On Monday, the National Federation of Distribution of Motor Vehicles (Fenabrave) reported that registrations -referential for sales in the sector- fell by 76% in the fourth month of the year compared to the same month of 2019 with 55,732 units sold.

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