LatinNews Regional Monitor: Brazil & Southern Cone - 09 April 2020

* Brazil’s national statistics institute (Ibge) has released its latest data on the services sector, which registered a 1% contraction in volume of activity in February compared with January this year, the biggest monthly fall since July 2018. Activity in the professional, administrative and complementary services sector fell by 0.9%; in information and communication, by 0.5%; and in services provided to families, by 0.1%. Tourism activities decreased by 0.3% month-on-month in February, although they expanded 6.7% compared with February 2019. Year-on-year, the services sector expanded 0.7% in February. Ibge researcher, Rodrigo Lobos, notes that Brazil’s services sector has seen a prevalence of negative figures over the last few months. This suggests that the services sector was suffering from a laggard performance even before the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic paralysed the economy from mid-March.

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