RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil’s economic activity fell by 0.15% in August compared to the 0.23% acceleration recorded in July, ending a streak of four consecutive monthly rises, the Central Bank reported Friday (15).
The so-called Economic Activity Index (IBC-Br), which the monetary authority measures monthly in an attempt to advance the trend of the gross domestic product (GDP), reached 139.23 points in August, which was 0.19 % below pre-pandemic levels, since in February 2020, the indicator stood at 139.35 points.
The financial market result was worse than expectations, which assumed a contraction of 0.05% to 0.10% a month in America’s second-largest economy after the United States.
Despite the negative monthly result, Brazilian economic activity accelerated in August by 4.74% compared to the same month last year, when the country was still feeling the effects of the containment measures to mitigate the coronavirus crisis.
The Central Bank also reported that the indicator accumulated an increase of 6.41% in the first eight months of the year, while in the 12 months ended in August, the accumulated growth is 3.99%.
With the slowdown of the pandemic, which has already left more than 602,000 dead and 21.6 million cases, economists consulted by the Central Bank forecast growth of 5.04% of the Brazilian GDP for 2021, while the Ministry of Economy estimates project an acceleration of 5.3%.