Producer prices in Brazil rise 0.06% in February, after three months of decline

After three consecutive months of decline, national industry prices rose 0.06% from January to February, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) reported this Tuesday (2). With this result, the Producer Price Index (IPP) accumulated a drop of 5.16% in 12 months. In the year, the accumulated variation is -0.18%.

Among the major economic categories, capital goods fell -1.05% in the month, while intermediate goods rose 0.12% and consumer goods advanced 0.21%. In this last category, there was a change of 0.23% in durable consumer goods and 0.20% in semi-durable and non-durable consumer goods.

The positive monthly result in February was disseminated by 14 of the 24 activities investigated in the research. The sectors that contributed most to the general index were metallurgy (0.12 percentage points), extractive industries (0.09 pp) and oil refining and biofuels (0.08 pp).

However, the biggest highlight was the food sector (-1.42%), which, in general, exerted the greatest influence on the national index (-0.35 pp) The result of this activity was impacted by the drop in prices of products derived from soy, rice and fresh beef.

The IBGE analysis and methodology manager, Alexandre Brandão, recalled that this month saw the arrival of the soybean and rice harvest and an increase in the number of cattle for slaughter and that this made prices cheaper for the industry. “If it weren’t for the negative result of the food sector, which accounts for around 25% of the industry, the index would have grown more in February”, he adds.

Also according to IBGE, in the metallurgy sector, prices rose 2.03% compared to January, the third positive result in a row. This rate was the highest for the activity since May 2022 (2.05%). From January to February, the biggest influences on the increase came from products from the non-ferrous metals group, which have been affected by exchange rate variations and input prices.

In the extractive industries (1.79%), there was inflation for the third consecutive month. In the year, the sector accumulates an increase of 6.52%. “In this activity, Brazil follows the movement of prices in the international market and they have been increasing. The depreciation of the real against the dollar intensifies this even further”, said the manager.

In turn, in oil refining and biofuels (0.74%), the positive change was mainly influenced by the increase in the price of ethyl alcohol. “The products that weigh most heavily on this activity are petroleum derivatives, such as diesel oil and gasoline, but the biggest impact this time came from ethyl alcohol, due to the temporary difficulty of grinding sugar cane in certain areas”, analyzed Brandão. .