GDP better than expected, but not all that glitters is gold
In the second quarter, GDP was once again higher than expected, surpassing all forecasts. In fact, economic activity has been stronger than projected in Brazil, several other Latin American countries and the United States since last year. In general, despite a tighter monetary policy, the slowdown in these economies has been very moderate.
However, some sectors have performed a lot better than others. Output and demand in relation to goods have both slowed down considerably, in line with monetary tightening, but service-related activity has been much more resilient than projected. Also, since services are labor intensive, the labor market data has also been surprisingly positive.