Brazil's industrial production fell 0.2% in May 2026 from the previous month, missing expectations of a 0.3% growth and marking its first monthly decline of the year after a 0.7% increase in April.
The downturn was broad-based, with three of the four major industrial categories and 8 of the 25 industries surveyed posting declines.
The largest negative contributions came from coke, refined petroleum products and biofuels (-6.1%) and extractive industries (-2.6%).
Additional declines were recorded in food products (-1.3%), textiles (-4.0%), printing and recorded media (-8.1%), and computers, electronic and optical products (-2.0%).
Among the 16 industries that expanded, the main gains came from pharmaceuticals (13.1%), motor vehicles (4.1%), and chemicals (3.1%), followed by metallurgy (2.3%), apparel (4.7%), other transport equipment (4.7%), electrical machinery (2.6%), and machinery and equipment (1.2%).
Compared with May 2025, industrial production edged up 0.2%.