Services sector changes -0.1% in September, impacted by transport

The services sector, which employs the most in the economy, changed -0.1% in September, compared to August. The result was negatively impacted mainly by transport and information and communication activities.

The performance also reveals a variation of -0.1% in relation to September of last year, interrupting a sequence of 29 positive results in this comparison with the same month of the previous year.

The data is part of the Monthly Services Survey (PMS), released this Wednesday (11), by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

Between the second and third quarters there was also a change of -0.1%. For the institute, variations of this magnitude (-0.1%) are considered stability.

The services sector is a thermometer of the economy, as it brings together large activities that generate employment, such as transport, tourism, restaurants, beauty salons, internet and information technology (IT).

September's performance places the sector 0.4% below the maximum point already reached, which belongs to October 2025.

In 12 months, services accumulated an increase of 1.9%. In August, this growth rate was 2.2%. The accumulated increase in September 2026 is the lowest since July 2021 (0.4%).

According to research analyst, Rodrigo Lobo, the performance of services shows "accommodation".

Of the five groups of activities surveyed by IBGE, two ended September in the negative field, when compared to the previous month: transport (-0.5%), information and communication (-0.5%), professional, administrative and complementary services (0.5%), other services (1.0%) and services provided to families (0.0%).

According to Lobo, transport performance was pressured by lower revenue from road freight transport, air passenger transport, freight logistics and rail freight transport. Lobo contextualizes that the drop in air and road transport is a reflection of the conflict in the Middle East, which caused disturbances in global oil logistics and made fuel more expensive around the world. Transport is the activity group with the greatest weight in the survey, accounting for 36.40% of the indicator.

The information and communication activity was driven by lower revenue from companies that work with IT services and cinema exhibitions. On the growth side, advances in professional and administrative services were driven by gains from advertising space agency and legal activities. The result of other services was explained by the increase in revenue from companies that provide auxiliary financial services and real estate activities.

PMS investigates 166 types of services. Banks are not included in the survey.

The Monthly Services Survey also includes the tourist activity index (Iatur), which fell 1.6% in September, compared to the previous month. Compared to the same month in 2025, there was a change of -0.5%. These results leave tourism activities 11.7% above the pre-covid-19 pandemic level (February 2020) and 1.6% below the highest level ever reached, in December 2024.

Iatur brings together 22 of the 166 service activities investigated in the research and which are linked to tourist activity, such as hotels, travel agencies, buffets and air passenger transport. Information is published from 17 federation units: Ceará, Pernambuco, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, Goiás and Distrito Federal, Amazonas, Pará, Mato Grosso, Alagoas and Rio Grande do Norte.

According to Rodrigo, the result of tourism has been greatly impacted in 2026 by air passenger transport, “due to a higher level of air ticket prices”.