Thaís Leitão
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Rio – The sum of all the riches produced in Brazil last year - which is called the Gross Domestic Product (Produto Interno Bruto) (PIB) – was US$854 billion, according to the government statistical bureau (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística) (IBGE). That means GDP growth in 2005 was 2.3%.

What happened in 2005 was that two sectors grew, while one got smaller, as a percentage of GDP, compared to 2004. Thus, there was strong performance in the manufacturing sector, which went from 38.9% to 40% of GDP, and the services sector which went from 55.6% to 57%. However, the agricultural sector dropped from 10.1% to 8.4%.

The IBGE said the weak performance in agriculture was due to bad weather and problems with cases of foot and mouth disease in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul.

Translation: Allen Bennett