Economic activity in Brazil began to grow again in monthly terms in May, after two sharp consecutive declines in March and April, as businesses slowly began to open up in the wake of coronavirus-related quarantining measures.

The central bank’s IBC-Br index, a leading indicator of gross domestic product, rose 1.31% in May from April. That was a marked improvement from the 9.7% slump in April.

“The growth in real economic activity in May is due to the gradual relaxation of social distancing and measures to restrict activity and movement,” said Goldman Sachs economist Alberto Bernal.

“Although the pandemic still needs to be controlled, recent data and some metrics suggest activity hit bottom and reached an inflection point sometime in the middle of April.”