Brazil’s industrial output plunged by 4.5% last year as the coronavirus pandemic battered Latin America’s largest economy, particularly the auto and clothing industries. Brazilian companies took a massive hit when much of the country went into partial lockdown in March and April, which caused industrial output to plummet by 27.1%. Despite eight months of gradual recovery since then, production did not fully rebound. The auto industry, which ground to a near-total halt in March, ended the year with an output contraction of 28.1%, said national statistics institute IBGE. The clothing and metal industries shrank 23.7% and 7.2%, respectively.
Year ended with a better-than-expected monthly gain, however: industrial output increased by 0.9%. Brazil has been hit hard by the pandemic. It has the second-highest death toll worldwide, after the United States: more than 225,000 people killed by Covid-19. It is currently in the grip of a nasty second wave that has brought new economic uncertainty. The Brazilian economy is set to register a contraction of 4.5% for 2020, and make a modest rebound of 3.6% this year. The hit to industrial output was the worst annual contraction for Brazil since 2016, when the figure came in at minus 6.4% in the second year of a record two-year recession.