The Brazilian civil construction sector experienced an improvement in activity levels in July, as reflected by an index reading of 49.5 points, the highest in a year, though it remains just below the 50.0-point benchmark that separates optimistic from pessimistic outlooks.
According to data from the National Confederation of Industry (CNI), there are encouraging indicators for the industry. The employment index reached 50.1 points, while the capacity utilization rate increased to 68 percent, marking its best performance in the past nine months.
However, indices related to new projects and services have stabilized rather than grown, and the metric for raw material acquisitions fell below the 50-point threshold, signifying a possible contraction for upcoming works.
In July, the sector’s capacity utilization rose by two percentage points compared to June, reaching a yearly high of 68 percent.
Expectations for August declined, with the sector's outlook index falling by 2.4 percentage points to 47.2. This decrease reflects more cautious assessments among executives regarding both their companies’ prospects and the wider Brazilian economy.
The CNI survey included answers from 318 civil construction company executives, collected between August 1 and 12, 2025.