Brazil Industry Unexpectedly Shrinks Amid Strong Real

Brazil’s industrial output unexpectedly fell in September as the real strengthened close to a two-year high, reducing pressure on the central bank to raise interest rates next year.

Industrial production contracted 0.2 percent in September, the fifth monthly decline since April, the national statistics agency said today in Rio de Janeiro. Economists had expected output to expand 0.1 percent, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 26 analysts. Output rose 6.3 percent from a year ago, the slowest annual pace this year and below analysts’ median forecast for a 7.1 percent increase.