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 The 1.3 million micro and small companies in the southeastern Brazilian state of São Paulo ended February with an average increase of 2.3% in revenues compared with the same month of the previous year. The growth represented a gain of 465 million reais (US$ 270 million), totaling 20.3 billion reais (US$ 11.8 billion) in revenues.
This is the fifth consecutive month in which small enterprises post an increase in revenue in comparison with the same month of the previous year. Average revenues stood at 15,200 reais (US$ 9,000) per company.
This was the best result in terms of revenues for the month of February since 2002. Micro and small retail companies are still driving the resumption of growth, as they posted an 11.6% expansion in revenues compared with February 2007. Revenues of small businesses in the industry and services sectors decreased 4.3% and 10.2%, respectively.
The data were taken from the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae) Indicators/SP survey, conducted on a monthly basis by the organization among 2,700 micro and small-sized companies in the processing, trade and services industries, and which measures rates of actual revenues, personnel employed, expenditure on wages, average worker income and expectations. The survey counts on the collaboration of the State Data Analysis System Foundation (Seade).
To the economist at the Micro and Small Companies Observatory at Sebrae/SP, Pedro João Gonçalves, "micro and small companies, especially those in retail trade, are benefiting from the growth of the domestic market, driven by the recovery of the population's purchasing power and by the larger number of options for obtaining credit to make purchases."
For the next few months, the businessmen are relatively optimistic. According to the survey, 40% of the interviewees believe that their company's revenues are going to improve over the next six months, and 50% bet that they will remain the same.
With regard to the economy, 38% are expecting for the Brazilian economic situation to improve over the next six months, and 48% believe that the current economic conjuncture will remain stable.
In the assessment of the superintendent at Sebrae-São Paulo, Ricardo Tortorella, 2008 might be a positive year for micro and small companies: "In 2007, micro and small businesses posted a 4% growth in revenues. As the perspectives for Brazilian economy are relatively favorable, revenues posted by these companies are expected to continue recovering."
Trade Surplus
Data disclosed Monday, April 14, by the Brazilian Ministry of Development show that, last week, the Brazilian balance of trade posted a surplus of US$ 319 million, with exports totaling US$ 3.072 billion and imports, US$ 2.753 billion. In the result for the month, the accumulated surplus was greater than US$ 1.161 billion, and for the year it reached US$ 3.998 billion.
The accumulated balance of trade surplus for the year in Brazil, up until the second week of April, is almost US$ 6.5 billion lower than recorded during the same period in 2007.
In a comparison with the accumulated result in the same period last year, export value grew 14.1% on average per business day, and import value rose 41.4%.
With regard to the accumulated surplus, which was reduced from US$ 10.484 billion to US$ 3.998 billion using the same basis for comparison, the average per business day decreased 61.3%, from US$ 147.7 million to US$ 57.1 million.
ABr
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