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Brazil's economic activities down 4 pct in 2015: central bank

Xinhua, February 19, 2016 Adjust font size:

Brazil's Central Bank announced on Thursday its Economic Activity Indicator (IBC-Br) for 2015, which showed the country's economy has contracted 4.08 percent last year, hitting the lowest point in 12 years.

The IBC-Br, which analyzes economic activity in the agricultural, industrial and services sector, is not Brazil's official GDP indicator, but the index is widely considered as a preview for the GDP figures, which will be released by the government's statistics agency IBGE in early March.

The IBC-Br is also taken into consideration by the Central Bank's Monetary Policy Committee to evaluate whether to alter the annual basic interest rate, Selic.

The 2015 IBC-Br is the worst since 2003. Until now, the lowest figures were registered in 2009 with a 1.71 percent contraction. The figures are also much worse than those registered in 2014, when the Brazilian economy dropped 0.15 percent according to the Central Bank's analysis.

The bank said that in the fourth quarter of 2015, Brazil's economy shrank by 1.87 percent compared to the third quarter and by 6.34 percent compared to the same period in 2014. Endi