⁍ Brazil’s Economy Ministry on Tuesday kept its forecast for a record 4.7% fall in gross domestic product this year.

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⁍ The ministry said it expects growth in the third quarter to be led by industry, agriculture and trade.

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– Brazil’s economy shrank by a record 9.7% in the second quarter, but the country’s economy ministry is sticking with its forecast for a record 4.7% contraction this year. The recovery will accelerate, it says, with industry, agriculture, and trade expected to lead growth in the third quarter, Reuters reports. The country’s economy is expected to grow 7.3% in 2020. The unchanged 2020 outlook came as a slight surprise, after a special secretary to the ministry had indicated earlier this month that the forecast could be revised up. Still, a contraction of 4.7% is smaller than the average forecast in the latest central bank survey of economists, of around 5.1%, and far less gloomy than the International Monetary Fund’s projection of a 9.1% crash. The ministry noted that Brazil’s dominant services sector, which accounts for around 70% of all economic activity, has been slow to recover from the pandemic shock, but will start to show a ‘more vigorous’ performance in the fourth quarter. ‘According to our projections, the services sector will be stronger from October onwards, and will lead (the economy’s performance) in the fourth quarter,’ economic policy secretary Adolfo Sachsida told reporters in an online press conference on Tuesday. The ministry also maintained its 2021 GDP growth forecast of 3.2%. While the outlook is still subject to a high degree of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 crisis, Sachsida said next year’s projection was still on the conservative side.