Brazil’s economy contracts 5.4% in Q1
Brazil’s economy contracted 5.4 per cent in the first quarter from a year earlier as the country’s deep political crisis paralyses what was once one of the world’s fastest-growing emerging markets.
Data on Wednesday showed Brazil’s gross domestic product contracted for the fifth straight quarter in early 2016, shrinking 0.3 per cent from the last quarter of 2015 – further evidence that the country is heading for its worst recession on record, reports Samantha Pearson in São Paulo.
However, the figures were better than analysts had expected, with a Reuters poll earlier forecasting a 6 per cent year-on-year contraction and a 0.8 per cent decline from the previous quarter.
Following Dilma Rousseff’s suspension from office last month pending an impeachment trial, the government of interim president Michel Temer has struggled to put Latin America’s biggest economy back on track.
In one of his boldest moves yet, Mr Temer last week proposed a constitutional amendment to freeze future public expenses to tackle the country’s fiscal crisis and win back the trust of the world’s investors.
However, the country’s vast corruption investigation into bribery and kickbacks at oil company Petrobras has threatened to destabilise his government – over the past ten days, two of Mr Temer’s ministers have stepped down over the scandal.
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