São Paulo – The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Brazil expanded 0.4% in the second quarter of this year, to R$ 1.1 trillion (US$ 536 billion), according to figures disclosed by the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE). This was the worst performance since the third quarter in 2009, when the rate was 1.5% negative, but it is the second most vigorous since the second quarter in 2011.
The performance in the second quarter was strongly influenced by the agricultural sector, whose growth was 4.9%, compensating, in part, the reduction of 2.5% in industry. The service sector helped, with the expansion of 0.7%. The result was close to that forecasted by the market, which expected GDP growth of 0.5%.
In industry, three of the four activities researched, had negative rates of variation. The highlight is the 2.5% observed in the transformation industry, followed by mining, with reduction of 2.3%, and civil construction, with a reduction of 0.7%. In electricity and gas, water, sewage and urban cleaning, there was growth of 1.6%.
In terms of expenses, and public administration and family consumer spending grew, respectively 1.1% and 0.6% in the second quarter of 2012. The other component of domestic demand, formation of gross fixed capital, dropped 0.7%. Relations with the foreign sector show that imports of goods and services grew 1.9%, while exports dropped 3.9%.
In the accumulated result for the last 12 months, the GDP has grown 1.2%, in comparison with the twelve months before. In the period, the service sector presented the best result, with expansion of 1.6%, followed by agriculture, which grew 1.5%. Industry, in turn, ended the period with contraction of 0.4%.
With regard to the second quarter of 2011, the GDP grew 0.5%. In this comparison, there was reduction of 2.4% in industry, and expansion of 1.5% in services and 1.7% in agriculture. In the half, the growth over the last six months of 2011 was 0.6%, the lowest result since the first half of 2009.
*With information from Agência Brasil. Translated by Mark Ament
