The 1% growth in the service sector was the main responsible for the country’s economy progress, from the last quarter of 2021 to the first quarter of this year. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the sum of all goods and services produced in the country, grew by 1% in the period.
According to published data today (2) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), one of the highlights was the segment of other services, which includes on-site work provided to families, such as accommodation and food, which grew by 2.2%.
Another highlight among services was the transport, storage and mail group, which grew 2.1%. Trade, on the other hand, advanced 1.6%.
According to the IBGE, the growth is related to the easing of the isolation measures adopted due to the covid-19 pandemic. “The advance was basically due to the increase in the demand for services, mainly the face-to-face services aimed at families”, said IBGE researcher Rebeca Palis.
She points out that travel-related services have also grown. “Passenger air transport has grown a lot. The services also have accommodation and food. In addition to flexibility, the population’s own demand grew. The fear of consuming these services has diminished”.
Brazilian GDP is 1.6% above the fourth quarter of 2019, that is, the last quarter before the pandemic. Despite this, it is still 1.7% below the record level of the Brazilian economy in the first quarter of 2014.
“We more than overcame the retraction that occurred with the pandemic, but we still haven’t recovered the pre-crisis level of 2015/2016”, said Rebeca.
The industry, in turn, maintained some stability, with only 0.1% variation. Some segments had an increase, such as electricity and gas, water, sewage and waste management (6.6%) and the manufacturing industry (1.4%). The manufacturing industry, however, slowed down the performance of the industrial sector, with a drop of 3.4%.
Agriculture, on the other hand, had a negative result, falling 0.9%. According to the IBGE, the drop was mainly influenced by the drought in the south of the country, which caused losses in the estimated production of soybeans, the largest Brazilian crop.
Expenses
As for expenses, growth was driven by two components: household consumption, which increased 0.7%, and exports, which rose 5% in the first quarter.
Gross fixed capital formation, which measures investments, dropped by 3.5% in the period, related to the decrease in production and imports of capital goods.
