BRASILIA: Brazil’s industrial output fell for a fourth straight month in September as automakers, metal producers and other manufacturers were hit by a worsening recession, government data showed on Wednesday.
Industrial production fell a seasonally adjusted 1.3 percent in September from August, statistics agency IBGE said. The median estimate in a Reuters survey of 23 analysts forecast a 1.5 percent decline. Production in September slid 10.9 percent from a year earlier, the steepest decline since April 2009.
Brazil’s industrial output has been shrinking from a year earlier since March 2014. Brazil’s economy plunged into recession this year as inflation and public sector debt soared, prompting tax and interest rate increases that have weighed on business sentiment.
The Brazilian economy is widely expected to shrink by about 3 percent this year and around 1.5 percent in 2016, in the longest downturn for the South American country since the 1930s.
In September, output dropped in 15 of 24 industrial segments on a monthly basis, with a fall in automobiles and machinery weighing most heavily on the industrial output decline. Higher production of coal coke, oil derivatives and biofuels helped limit the decline in the industrial production index, IBGE said. Industrial production may have declined again in October, according to a purchasing managers’ survey on Tuesday.
The PMI index for the Brazilian manufacturing sector fell to a seasonally adjusted 44.1 in October, the lowest since March 2009, from 47.0 in September.
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