Brazil’s GDP Growth of 2.7% Last Year Underperformed BRIC Peers: Economy
Brazil’s economy last year registered its second-worst performance since 2003 as higher borrowing costs and a currency that rallied to a 12-year high led it to underperform emerging-market peers China and India.
Gross domestic product expanded 2.7 percent even after growth accelerated in the fourth quarter, the national statistics agency said today in Rio de Janeiro. The median estimate of 32 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for the economy to grow 2.8 percent.
The GDP figure underscores central bank President Alexandre Tombini’s view that the economy is growing below capacity amid Europe’s debt crisis, reinforcing bets that the central bank may accelerate the pace of interest-rate cuts tomorrow. Growth in Latin America’s biggest economy will gain speed and grow 4.5 percent this year, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said today.