Brazil’s gross domestic product (GDP) is reported to have grown 7.7 percent in the third quarter from the previous three-month period.

According to the government’s statistics agency IBGE, which disclosed the figures from its Quarterly Accounts today (Dec. 3), this is the sharpest variation since the beginning of this historic series in 1996—but still not enough to recover from the losses brought about by the pandemic.

The result also indicates that the country’s economy is at the same level as 2017, with accumulated losses adding up to five percent January–September compared to the same period in 2019.

Compared to the same quarter in 2019, the GDP showed a 3.9 percent decline, and reached R$1.891 trillion in current terms.

Rebeca Palis, IBGE’s coordinator of National Accounts, argued the growth was founded on a low basis, when the country was at the peak of the pandemic in the second quarter.

“There was a recovery in the third quarter, compared to the third, but if we look at the year-on-year rate, the reduction is 3.9 percent, and year-to-date we’re also on the wane, both for industry and services. Agriculture is the only one on the rise this year, chiefly driven by soybeans, our main crop,” he said.

Sectors

In the third quarter, industry rose 14.8 percent and services 6.3 percent. Agriculture slipped 0.5 percent. According to IBGE, the GDP spike in the period was mainly caused by the performance in industry, most notably the 23.7 percent surge in the manufacture industry. Electricity and gas, water, sewage, and waste management activities also grew (8.5%), like construction (5.6%), and extraction (2.5%).

“From the production viewpoint, manufacture stood out, especially as it faced a sharp plunge in the second quarter (-19.1%), with restrictions on its operations. Industry grew as a whole 14.8 percent, and manufacture 23.7 percent, but we’re back to the levels of the first quarter,” Palis pointed out.