A SINGLE economic figure can boost or batter a politician’s standing. That makes it tempting to offer sneak peeks of the most flattering ones, as Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, did recently when she told El País, a Spanish newspaper, that a forthcoming statistical revision would raise economic growth in 2012 from 0.9% to a less weak 1.5%. Nemesis is rarely so swift: on December 3rd the national statistics institute said that it had indeed revised the 2012 figure up, but only to 1%. And it announced that GDP shrank by 0.5% in the third quarter compared with the previous three months.Market analysts rushed to trim already anaemic forecasts for growth this year and next (see chart). The fourth quarter might also see a contraction, said Nomura, an investment bank, which would put Brazil in technical recession. Even if that is avoided, with a year to go the economic verdict on Ms Rousseff’s presidency already looks clear. Growth will have averaged around 2% and inflation 6%. Government finances will have deteriorated sharply. A swollen current-account deficit completes a dispiriting picture.Ms Rousseff will almost...
via The Economist: The Americas http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21591196-slow-growth-stubborn-inflation-and-mounting-deficits-deterioration?fsrc=rss|ame
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