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.
