Brazil’s Economic Activity Caps First Half of Year With Bigger-Than-Expected Gain

  • Economic activity rose 0.63% on month, 2.10% on year in June
  • Central bankers signaled plans to continue rate cuts of 50bps

A shopper counts real banknotes at a street market in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Photographer: Paulo Fridman/Bloomberg

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Brazil’s economy ended the first half of the year on better-than-expected footing according to the central bank’s main gauge of activity, as demand proved uneven weeks before the start of key rate cuts.

The bank’s economic activity index, a proxy for gross domestic product, rose 0.63% in June from the prior month, slightly more than the median estimate of 0.50% from analysts in a Bloomberg survey. From a year ago, the gauge increased 2.1%, according to data published on Monday.