Economic Calendar - Currencies

The Markit Brazil Services PMI is based on data compiled from monthly replies to questionnaires sent to purchasing executives in around 350 private service sector companies. The Index tracks variables such as sales, employment, inventories and prices. An index reading above 50 indicates an overall increase in that variable, below 50 an overall decrease.

The Composite Output Index is a weighted average of the Manufacturing Output Index and the Services Business Activity Index. The weights reflect the relative size of the manufacturing and service sectors according to official GDP data. The Composite Output Index may be referred to as the ‘Composite PMI’ but is not comparable with the headline manufacturing PMI figure.

The S&P Global Canada Services PMI is compiled by S&P Global from responses to questionnaires sent to a panel of around 400 service sector companies. The sectors covered include consumer (excluding retail), transport, information, communication, finance, insurance, real estate and business services. The panel is stratified by detailed sector and company workforce size, based on contributions to GDP. Survey responses indicate the direction of change compared to the previous month. The indices vary between 0 and 100, with a reading above 50 indicating an overall increase compared to the previous month, and below 50 an overall decrease. The headline figure is the Services Business Activity Index, which is a diffusion index calculated from a question that asks for changes in the volume of business activity compared with one month previously.

In the last few years, Brazil has been reporting trade surpluses, primarily due to high exports in the manufacturing industry (54 percent of total exports), mining (23 percent) and agricultural products (22 percent). Brazil's main imports are in the manufacturing industry (89 percent of total imports) with fuels and fertilizers comprising 18 percent of total imports. The biggest trade partners are: China (27 percent of total exports and 22 percent of total imports), the United States (11 percent of exports and 19 percent of imports), Argentina (5 percent of exports and 5 percent of imports). Others include: the Netherlands, Canada, Japan, Germany and Spain.