off-the-wire

Brazil's industrial output down for 3rd month in a row in February

Kitco Media
By Reuters
Published:
Updated:
Reuters

SAO PAULO, April 19 (Reuters) - Industrial production in Brazil fell for the third consecutive month in February, government statistics agency IBGE said on Wednesday, with the sector still below pre-pandemic levels as it struggles to gather steam.

Output dropped 0.2% in February from January (BRIO=ECI), below the median estimate of a 0.1% decline in a Reuters poll of economists.

Production in February also retreated 2.4% from a year earlier (BRIOY=ECI), IBGE added, missing market forecasts of a 1.9% fall.

"Industrial production had some improvement at the end of last year, but the start of 2023 shows a drop in output, which remains far from recovering losses from the recent past," IBGE's research manager Andre Macedo said in a statement.

Industrial output in Latin America's largest economy is now 2.6% below pre-pandemic levels of February 2020, according to the statistics agency, and 19% below its May 2011 all-time high.

Reporting by Gabriel Araujo; Editing by Steven Grattan
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