Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil's economy grew just 0.1 percent last year, barely keeping the country out of a recession, the government's statistics bureau said Friday.
It was the worst result since 2009 and bad news for President Dilma Rousseff, whose popularity has plummeted along with Brazil's economic performance.
To blame for last year's poor performance was a drop in investments, which fell 4.4 percent from 2013.
Consumer consumption had been a driving force for the economy for years, but it grew just 0.9 percent last year.
"This seems unsustainable given the run-up in consumer debt and signs that the labor market is weakening," London-based Capital Economics said in an emailed statement
Still, most economists were expecting figures from the IBGE statistics bureau to show the country actually entered a recession last year. Most private economists polled by the Central Bank expect Brazil to be in a recession this year.
The bureau said the better-than-expected 2014 results were mainly due to 0.7 percent growth in the services sector and a 0.4 percent rise in the agribusiness sector. The industrial sector shrank 1.2 percent.
IBGE said Brazil's 2014 GDP totaled 5.52 trillion reals ($1.63 trillion), while the country's GDP per capita was 27,229 reals (about $8,500).
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
