By Silvio Cascione
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's industrial output expanded slightly in November as businesses avoided adding to already-high inventories, damping hopes of a sustained recovery, according to a Reuters poll on Monday.
Output from Brazilian factories and mines grew by a seasonally adjusted 0.5 percent in November
Compared with the same period a year earlier, industrial output
Brazil's statistics agency, IBGE, will release the November industrial output report at 9 a.m. (0600 ET) on Thursday.
Industry has been particularly vulnerable to Brazil's broader economic slowdown in recent years. Weaker consumer demand and stubborn inflation compounded a string of long-standing problems, including high taxes and a scarcity of skilled labour, for which economists see no easy short-term fix.
"Industrial output has been declining since 2011, and for many sectors this adjustment will keep going as inventories remain high, demand shrinks and government stimulus is scaled back," said Gustav Gorski, chief economist at asset management firm Quantitas, in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
A survey of purchasing managers on Friday hinted at a slight pick-up in manufacturing activity in December
"Business confidence remains very low. Besides that, the auto sector keeps showing bad signals: media reports indicate record layoffs and collective vacations, which will weigh in December and January," Marco Maciel, chief economist at Banco Pine, wrote in a research note.
Forecasts for the monthly result ranged from an increase of 1.4 percent to a decline of 1.5 percent, while estimates for the year-over-year decline ranged from 3.3 percent to 4.9 percent.
(Editing by Alan Crosby)