Rio, July 9, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Brazil's industrial production grew 0.1% in May, in comparison with April. For the first five months of the year, there was a 0.6% increase in activity, compared with the same period last year. These are some of the results of the study of Brazilian industrial production in May, released yesterday (8) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

During the quarter ending in May, all four categories (durable goods, intermediate goods, semi-durable goods, and non-durable goods) showed declines. The most pronounced was in durable consumer items, which fell 8.4% in relation to the previous quarter. In the other categories, the declines in May's quarter, compared with March's, came to 1.1% in capital goods, 1.7% in intermediate goods, and 1.1% in consumer semi-durable and non-durable items.

For the year, covering the period from January through May, the modest expansion of 0.6% is based on the results of the mechanical sector (11.1%), metallurgy (6.6%), and mining (3.9%), which helped reduce the negative impact of electrical and communications material (-6.6%), clothing and footware (-14.9%), textiles (-8.2%), and pharmaceutical products (-18.7%).

For the IBGE, these figures also confirm the profile of industrial performance during the first five months, in which agriculture and exports constituted the sources of dynamism in the manufacturing sector, while domestic consumption pushed the result in a negative direction. (DAS)