Loading ...News - Brazil Fin Min: Brazil GDP Expanded 6% On Year In 2Q
BRASILIA (Dow Jones) - Brazil’s economy rebounded strongly in the second quarter, with gross domestic product expanding at an annual rate of 6%, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said Wednesday.
GDP also rose between 1.6% and 1.7% from the first quarter, Mantega said. That would be a stunning turnaround from Brazil’s first recession since 2003.
The Brazilian central bank has slashed interest rates by 500 basis points so far in 2009, cutting the benchmark Selic base rate to an all-time low of 8.75% in an effort to stimulate economic activity.
Brazil’s gross domestic product shrank 1.8% in the first quarter from the same quarter in 2008, according to the latest data from the Brazilian Census Bureau, or IBGE. The economy also tumbled 0.8% in the first quarter compared with the fourth quarter last year, the IBGE said.
The first-quarter GDP figure was the second-consecutive quarter of contraction, which fits the technical definition of a recession. In the fourth quarter, Brazil’s GDP shrank 3.6% from the third quarter, the largest quarter-on-quarter slide ever registered.
Source: WSJ.
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