Brazil economic activity up

Business Recorder reported that Brazil's activity index climbed 0.3 per cent in August once seasonal effects were stripped out, a monthly gain published by the central bank on Friday. The figure landed exactly on the median estimate in a Reuters poll of economists.

The IBC-Br series, which serves as a stand-in for gross domestic product, draws on the bank's own estimates for farming, manufacturing, services and production-linked taxes. Industry was the main engine behind August's advance, rising 0.9 per cent compared with July. Without seasonal adjustment, the index stood 1.2 per cent higher than a year earlier, and over the twelve months to August it advanced 1.6 per cent.

The central bank has maintained that activity must cool for inflation to return to its 3 percent target, and it projects GDP growth of 1.8 per cent this year and 1.4 per cent in 2027. Policymakers meet again in early November, having delivered five successive 25-basis-point rate cuts that brought the benchmark Selic rate to 13.75 per cent.