BRASILIA: Industrial production in Brazil rose 2.6% in September, figures showed on Wednesday, more than economists had expected and enough to bring industrial output in Latin America's largest economy back up to the pre-pandemic levels of February.

This fits with other data that show manufacturing and industry recovering more rapidly than the dominant services sector, helping to limit the wider economy's downturn following the quarantine and lockdown measures to combat COVID-19.

Output rose 2.6% in September, statistics agency IBGE said, more than the median estimate in a Reuters poll of economists for a rise of 2.2%. It was the fifth monthly increase in a row, but the smallest of them all.

The August increase was revised up to 3.6% from 3.2%. That means industrial output is now 0.2% higher than it was in February before the pandemic erupted, IBGE said.

The year-on-year increase in September was 3.4%, also more than the 2.2% rise forecast in a Reuters poll.

Industrial output is still down 7.2% in the first nine months of this year, even though it has fully recovered the 27% plunge in activity registered in March and April, IBGE said, and was down 5.5% over the 12 months to September.

Among the 26 sectors surveyed, 22 registered an increase in production, IBGE said.