Historic Brazil GDP fall beats expectations

Official data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) shows that Brazil’s GDP fell 4.1 percent in 2020 during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. While this was the country’s worst growth performance since 1990, it exceeded expectations of the government and market analysts.

Brazil had not suffered such an eye-watering yearly slump since 1990, when annual GDP fell 4.35 percent. However, the Economy Ministry and Central Bank expected a worse result, forecasting 2020’s GDP slide at 4.5 and 4.4 percent, respectively.

GDP grew 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, far below the 7.7 percent recovery recorded in Q3.

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• #recession