Brazil's Economy Grows Less Than Expected In Q3 But Still Reaches Record Level

  • Brazil's economy decelerated in the third quarter, with a lower than expected growth, but still enough to place it at the highest level of the series since starting in 1996.
  • The country's gross domestic product rose 0.4% in the three months to September, below the 0.7% growth expected by economists polled by Reuters.
  • This was the fifth consecutive quarter of expansion, again bolstered by the services sector, putting the largest economy in Latin America 4.5% above the level posted before the pandemic, in the fourth quarter of 2019.
  • Still, the loss of steam underscores the challenges ahead as the central bank's aggressive monetary tightening to battle inflation begins to weigh more heavily on activity, overshadowing government stimulus ahead of Oct. presidential elections this year that helped boost demand.
  • The performance in the third quarter was fundamentally driven by a 1.1% growth in the dominant services sector, while industrial output grew by 0.8% and agriculture fell by 0.9%.

(Source: Reuters)