The rapid growth, driven by record-low unemployment and a confident new middle class of free-spending consumers, crowned the presidency of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who bowed out last year with an approval rating just shy of 90 percent.
But the tax breaks and loose spending that helped boost the economy left a fiscal mess for Lula's hand-picked successor, Dilma Rousseff, now grappling with inflation above 6 percent.