Rio, September 8, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Industry's real sales grew 7.52% in July, compared with June, according to the industrial indicators released by the National Confederation of Industry (CNI), signaling an interruption of the downward trend that characterized industrial activity in the first semester. However, when seasonal factors are discounted, the growth in industrial earnings in July was only 0.94%. Even so, this is the best seasonally adjusted result since March of this year, revealed the coordinator of the CNI's Economic Policy Unit, Flávio Castelo Branco.

In the cumulative figure for the period January-June, the expansion in real sales amounted to 0.06%, below the results registered in previous months. According to Castelo Branco, this indicates that the possibility of a reversal in the trend and more optimistic prospects for industrial activity are still not unequivocal. He explained that the deceleration in industry becomes evident when July's sales are compared with those of July, 2002, confirming a decline of 3.94%.

The CNI survey also shows that, when July is compared with June, real sales grew in all Brazilian states, in seven of which the rate exceeded the national average: Amazonas (9.23%), Bahia (13.42%), Espírito Santo (10.17%), Rio de Janeiro (10.67%), São Paulo (8.21%), Santa Catarina (9.35%), and Goiás (14.62%). (DAS)