After two years of the largest recession in its history, the Brazilian economy gained momentum in the wake of economic reforms and the country returned to growth. In the first quarter of 2017, Brazil’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 1% compared to the previous quarter. The data was released by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
The GDP is the sum of all the wealth produced by the country. The positive result for the quarter was mainly driven by strong results in agriculture. From January to March, the sector grew by 13.4% compared to the previous quarter, primarily due to this year’s record harvest.
In light of the news, Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles assessed that Brazil has exited the recession and that the Brazilian economy is on the right track.
“Today is a historic day. After two years, Brazil has come out of the worst recession of the century. During this period, millions of Brazilians lost their jobs, thousands of companies went bankrupt, and the State came close to insolvency,” the minister said in a statement, contrasting that “the strong growth of the economy at the beginning of this year is proof that this process has already been reversed.”
The good performance exceeded both the expectations of the government’s economic team and those of financial market analysts, demonstrating the improvement of economic indicators amid a scenario of falling interest rates and inflation. For this year, projections point to the first GDP growth since 2014, at a rate of 0.5%.
Source: BrazilGovNews