Brazil’s GDP up 1.4% in the first quarter of 2025

Brazil’s gross domestic product grew by 1.4 percent in the first quarter of this year from the fourth quarter of last year. In current values, the GDP totaled BRL 3 trillion in the quarter, as per data from the statistics bureau IBGE.

Compared to the first quarter of 2024, the GDP rose by 2.9 percent. In the 12-month span, the Brazilian economy grew by 3.5 percent.

Growth from the fourth quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of this year was driven by agriculture, up 12.2 percent. Services grew by 0.3 percent. Industry had a negative variation (-0.1%).

According to IBGE researcher Rebeca Palis, the growth in agriculture can be explained by “favorable weather conditions and the expectation of a record soybean harvest, our main crop.”

Within services, which s for 70 percent of the Brazilian economy, the highlights were information and communication activities (3.0%), other service activities (0.8%), and real estate activities (0.8%). Also growing were istration, defense, public health, education, and social security (0.6%), trade (0.3%), and financial and insurance activities and related services (0.1%). Only the transportation, storage, and mail segment fell, by 0.6 percent.

As for industrial activities, the electricity and gas, water, sewage, and waste management activities (1.5%) and extractive industries (2.1%) all saw an increase. On the other hand, there was a drop in manufacturing (-1%) and construction (-0.8%).

From a demand perspective, an increase of 3.1 percent was recorded in gross fixed capital formation (investments), 2.9 percent in exports of goods and services, and one percent in household consumption expenditure. On the other hand, imports of goods and services, which negatively affect the GDP , was up 5.9 percent.

Compared to the previous quarter, this is the 15th consecutive rise in Brazil’s GDP since the third quarter of 2021. Compared to the same period in the previous year, this is the 17th consecutive increase since the first quarter of 2021.

In the 12-month span, the 3.5 percent rate is the highest since the second quarter of 2023 (3.8%) and the 16th consecutive surge since the second quarter of 2021.