Last year was one of economic progress in RS. This is what the Gross Domestic Product (GDP of RS) shows, which was presented yesterday morning by the Department of Economics and Statistics (DEE), linked to the Secretariat for Planning, Budget and Management (Seplag).
The advance of 2% is greater than the Brazilian, which closed with an increase of 1.1%. According to the organ's analysis, the result is mainly due to the performance of agriculture. Therefore, the first six months, the harvest period, held back the 0.3% deceleration of the last four months.
However, this retraction at the end of the year is due to the results of the industry, with a drop of 3.9% compared to the same period of 2018. In the period, agriculture (+3) and services (+1.5%) registered the best numbers.
According to the researchers, it was expected that the end of the year would be one of retraction, as there was a slowdown in industries, especially due to the segment of vehicles, machinery and equipment. “The increase in wheat production minimized the impacts”, emphasizes the DEE analyst, Martinho Lazzari.
The 2% advance is the biggest since 2013. At the time, GDP grew by 5.8%. Therefore, it is a resumption after the drought that frustrated the results of the 2011/12 harvest. The indicator represents the sum of the riches produced by the Rio Grande do Sul GDP regions.
Negative outlook for 2020
However, a previous positive result should not be repeated. That's the expert analysis. The main reason is the drought. According to data from Emater/RS-Ascar, productivity losses exceed 30% in soybeans. Corn had a break of 26.3%.
The diagnosis refers to the portrait of the situation until this Monday. “The drought persists, and these numbers may increase”, says technical director Alencar Ruger. He also points out that the survey shows losses of up to 75% in some municipalities, but the data refers to a state average.
The president of the institution, Geraldo Sandri, emphasizes that the monitoring of crops is monitored periodically and there is no forecast for a new release of data before the conclusion of the harvest.
According to the head of the DEE Indicators Division, Vanessa Sulzbach, along with the frustrated harvest, there is also the slowdown in the world economy due to the effects of the coronavirus.
productive sectors
Therefore, the rise in GDP in RS was driven by agriculture (+6.2%), with emphasis on increases in wheat (+30.6%), corn (25.9%) and soybeans (5.5%).
Industry (+1.5%) also outperformed Brazil (+0.5%). The electricity and gas, water, sewage and urban cleaning (+3.5%) and the manufacturing industry (+1.8%) stand out, the latter being the most representative in the State's economy.
Among the activities with the highest rises in the manufacturing industry, the highlights are the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and bodies (13.5%), metal products (8.8%) and leather and footwear (7.6%). Among the biggest falls are metallurgy (-5.3%), rubber and plastic products (-5.3%) and machinery and equipment (-4.2%).
However, the service sector in Rio Grande do Sul was similar to the country (+1.6% against +1.3% in Brazil). All activities in the sector recorded a positive performance, with emphasis on information services (+3.8%) and financial intermediation and insurance (3%).
In trade, the result was below the country. RS had a growth of 0.6% while the country had 1.8%.
