Brazil GDP up 4.6% in 2021, exceeds pandemic-driven losses
Brazil’s gross domestic product (GDP) went up 0.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021 and closed out the year up 4.6 percent, adding up to BRL 8.7 trillion. The surge was enough to cover the losses of 2020, when the Brazilian economy shrank 3.9 percent as a result of the pandemic. The per capita GDP reached BRL 40,688 last year, 3.9 percent up from the year before (-4.6%).
The GDP rose 0.5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2019—before the COVID-19 pandemic—but remains 2.8 percent below the highest point of economic activity in this time series, posted in the first quarter of 2014.
The data were released today by Brazil’s statistics agency IBGE.
According to the figures, economic growth was driven by increases in services (4.7%) and industry (4.5%), which add up to 90 percent of the country’s GDP. Farming, however, was down 0.2 percent last year.
All activities under services went up in 2021, especially transport, storage, and mail (11.4%), said Rebeca Palis, IBGE coordinator for National Accounts. Passenger transport, she went on, also rose sharply, chiefly at the end of the year, as people started traveling again.
For industry, the positive highlight was construction, which, after sliding 6.3 percent in 2020, grew 9.7 percent in 2021.
