Aécio Neves
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Rio - The latest manufacturing sector survey by the Brazilian Economic Institute at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (IBRE/FGV) has found that the situation has not changed since the end of last year when demand was weak and the businessman mood was one of dissatisfaction.

In the survey, 23% of the businessmen interviewed said demand was weak, while 8% said it was strong. The IBRE/FGV says the 15 percentage point difference is the biggest since 1999. It also found that 28% of those interviewed said they did not intend to increase production in the short-term, the highest percentage since 2003.

Translation: Allen Bennett