The services sector, made up of activities such as transport, tourism, restaurants, beauty salons, internet and information technology (IT), grew 1.2% from March to April. The result marks the first increase in a six-month period. In March, performance fell by 1.1%. Over the last 12 months, the sector has expanded by 2.9%. In comparison with April 2025, there was growth of 1.9%. Related news: "Brazil doesn't lower its head", says Durigan when defending sovereignty and Pix. Petrobras buys 50% of the Itaimbezinho block, in the Campos pre-salt. Government is studying the return of stolen cell phones at the Post Office, says Lula. The data is part of the Monthly Services Survey, released this Thursday (11) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). When comparing immediately consecutive months, the last increase was in October 2025, with an expansion of 0.3%, when it reached the highest level in the series that began in January 2011. See the sector's behavior over the last six months: April: +1.2% March: -1.1% February: 0% January: 0% December: -0.3% November: -0.1% April's result is the biggest positive change since October 2024, when services grew 1.3%. IBGE analyst Rodrigo Lobo details that April's data places the sector at the same level as at the end of 2025. He adds that it is not possible to say that the sector has changed its performance trend. “The services sector continues to operate at a high level, just 0.3% below the top of the series, reached in October 2025, but without a very well-defined trajectory, whether upward or downward.” Activities To calculate the sector's performance, IBGE researchers collect information on 166 types of services, classified into five large groups of activities. The five remained in the positive field from March to April, with the greatest positive influence coming from transport, storage and postal services. Services provided to families: 1.4% Information and communication: 0.5% Professional and administrative services: 0.4% Transport, storage and mail: 0.9% Other services: 2.2 Of the activities above, the one with the greatest weight is transport, storage and mail, which represents more than a third (36.4%) in the Brazilian services sector. Airplane price helped "The result of the transport sector is explained, to a large extent, by the 7% increase observed in the passenger air transport segment. This increase occurs after two negative results in a row, when the segment lost, on an accumulated basis, 16.6%, between February and March 2026", says Lobo. The research manager explains that the price of airline tickets is behind the sector's good performance in April. “In February and March there was an 18.4% increase in prices, while in April there was a 14.45% drop in this sub-item of the [inflation index] IPCA.” In April 2026, the volume of passenger transport rose 2.6% compared to the immediately previous month. The volume of cargo transport decreased by 0.9%. Tourist activity index The Monthly Services Survey also includes the tourist activities index (Iatur), which rose 4.1% in April, compared to the previous month. Over the last 12 months, the index has increased by 2.7%. The results leave tourism activities 11.2% above the pre-covid-19 pandemic level (February 2020) and 2.2% 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, catering 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.