Brazil’s GDP grew 1.2% in January to US$155 billion – FGV

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Compared to January 2021, Brazil’s economy grew by 1.2% in January this year. In monetary terms, the study estimates GDP in January 2022 at R$769.384 billion (US$155) in current values.

Compared to December the economy fell 1.4%. This is according to the GDP Monitor released today (21st) by the Getulio Vargas Foundation.

The GDP-FGV Monitor coordinator, Claudio Considera, reported that between January 2019 and February 2020, before the start of the Covid 19 pandemic, the national economy grew by an average of 1.1% per quarter.

From March 2020 to January 2022, growth averaged 0.4%. During the same periods, agriculture and livestock grew by 0.6% and 0.7%, respectively, industry declined by 0.7% and grew by 0.7%, and services grew by 1.4% and 0.2%, respectively.

On the demand side, household consumption increased by 2.3% and decreased by 1%; government consumption decreased by 0.5% and 1%.

CONSUMPTION

For household consumption, the economist noted on the same basis of comparison,

• consumption of non-durable goods increased by 1.1% and 0.3%;
• consumption of semi-finished goods increased by 1.5% and then stagnated;
• consumption of durable goods increased by 5.1% and decreased by 0.1%;
• and consumption of services increased by 2.6% and 0.8%.

“Especially the consumption of services, which accounts for 52% of household consumption, depends on social interaction, which was affected by the lack of vaccination,” said the GDP-FGV Monitor coordinator.

In the moving quarter that ended in January this year, household consumption increased by 1.9% compared to the same period last year. This was the fourth consecutive month in which the services component was the only one to show positive rates.

Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), which measures the share of investment in GDP, increased by 1.3% in the quarter ended in January compared to the same quarter last year.

According to the FGV, rates for this activity have continued to decline since last June. The GDP-FGV Monitor shows that the average of monthly investment rates since January 2000 was 18%, while the average of monthly investment rates since January 2015 reached 16.3%. In January 2022, the growth rate was 18.8%.

FOREIGN TRADE

The GDP-FGV Monitor indicates that Brazilian exports increased by 5.6% in the quarter ended in January compared to the same period last year.

Contributing to this result were the services and agricultural products components, which showed positive rates of 15% and 28.6%, respectively.

However, when analyzing the seasonally adjusted series, exports in the January quarter show a decrease of 0.6 compared to the October quarter.

Imports also increased by 2.2% in the January quarter compared to the same period last year. Of note is the 10.5% increase in services imports and the large increase in mineral extraction (54.1%).

In the seasonally adjusted series, imports increased by 1.2% in the January quarter compared to the October quarter.

The GDP Monitor estimates Brazilian GDP in volume and value on a monthly basis. It was created to provide society with a monthly GDP indicator based on the same methodology as the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) National Accounts.

With information from Agencia Brasil