Industrial sector prices fell 1.29% in December 2022 compared to November, the fifth negative result in a row. As a result, industry inflation closed the year 2022 with an increase of 3.13%, the third lowest accumulated value in the year since the beginning of the historical series, in 2014.
The data are from the Producer Price Index (IPP), released today (1st), in Rio de Janeiro, by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
The 2022 high was approximately 25 percentage points lower than that of 2021. According to the IPP manager, Felipe Câmara, this result consolidates the deflationary trajectory of the industry that started in the second half, which can be largely associated with falling prices of commodities in the international market.
“Barrel of oil, iron ore and fertilizer inputs are some of the outstanding products in this regard. The reduction in the price of crude oil, in line with international prices, in addition to having a direct impact on the results of the extractive industries, naturally causes a drop in costs along its derived chain, such as refining and other chemical products, with an impact on prices practiced in these sectors”, explained Câmara.
one-off increases
In the case of foodstuffs, the slight rise observed in December is associated with one-off price increases. “Products with a great influence on the sector’s result, such as beef and milk, maintained the dynamics of previous months, with prices on a downward slope due to the greater supply at this time of the year. This influence was overcome by increases such as crystal sugar, caused by a slow expansion of the national supply, or soy bran, which followed the current high in the international market”, added the researcher.
According to the IBGE, the IPP measures the variation in product prices at the “factory gate”, that is, without taxes and freight, for 24 activities in the extractive and manufacturing industries.
The activities that, in December 2022, had the highest changes in the accumulated result for the year were pulp and paper (19.45%), printing (19.17%), perfumery, soaps and cleaning products (16.99%) and manufacture of machinery and equipment (15.71%).
The main influences in the accumulated result for general industry came from petroleum refining and biofuels (1.23 percentage points -pp), other chemical products (-1.21 pp), food (1.20 pp) and metallurgy (-0. 87pp).
