A service sector confidence of Brazil fell slightly in October, reinforcing the perception of a slowdown in activity, showed data released this Thursday (30) by FGV (Fundação Getúlio Vargas).
During the month, the ICS (Services Confidence Index) fell 0.1 point, to 88.9 points, after the strongest increase of the year recorded in the previous month (+1.9 points).
FGV reported that the ISA-S (Current Situation Index), an indicator of the perception of the current situation in the services sector, dropped 1.0 points, to 92.9 points.
“Important sectors such as Accommodation and Food, Information and Communication and Professionals lead the worst assessments of current demand”, explained Stéfano Pacini, economist at FGV IBRE.
The IE-S (Expectations Index), which reflects the prospects for the coming months, advanced 0.8 points, reaching 85.0 points.
“In relation to the future, the specific evolution of the indicators has the characteristic of compensating for the falls observed in the recent past. Over a longer time horizon, there is greater pessimism among companies, a reflection of the financial difficulties and the contractionary monetary policy that should contribute to containing activity for some time”, added Pacini.
After maintaining the basic interest rate at 15%, the Central Bank stated that it has now entered a new stage of monetary policy that foresees the Selic unchanged for a long period to pursue the inflation target.
