Keite Camacho
Reporter Agência Brasil

Brasília – With the announcement by the IBGE that GDP growth dropped 1.2% in the third quarter, compared to the second quarter, Miguel José Ribeiro de Oliveira, vice president of the trade association of financial executives, administrators and accountants (Associação Nacional dos Executivos de Finanças, Administração e Contabilidade) (Anefac), declared that the market was expecting bad news, but not that bad. "When the IBGE announced a negative number it really had a negative effect," said Oliveira.

"It shows that the high interest rates are punishing the industrial sector," he said, adding that the interest rate is more than reasonably high to have caused such a harsh drop in economic activity.

The good news was that there was third quarter GDP growth: it was up 1% compared to the same period in 2004.

Translation: Allen Bennett