Brazil's industrial sector experienced an unexpected surge in December, hitting a nine-month growth high, according to preliminary data from the Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) released on Friday.
In December, industrial production rose by 1.1%, a notable increase from November's revised growth rate of 0.7%. This has been recognized as the most significant growth since March 2023, where there was a production growth of 1.2%.
Despite these recent positive trends pushing industrial production beyond pre-pandemic levels, it remains 16.3% below the peak achieved in May 2011, as reported by the IBGE.
When analyzing major economic sectors, production of durable goods demonstrated a monthly expansion of 6.3%, while the production of intermediate goods saw a rise of 1.3%. Conversely, the capital goods sector experienced a decline, with production falling by 1.2%.
Comparing year over year, December's industrial production saw a growth rate of 1.0%, although this was slower than November's increase of 1.3%. This growth was substantially greater than the predicted 0.1% gain.
Looking at the broader picture of 2023 as a whole, the overall industrial production increased by 0.2%, a significant rebound compared to the 0.7% decline witnessed in 2022.
