Highlights
- The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached R$9 trillion in 2021, with growth of 4.8% compared to 2020. GDP per capita reached R$42,247.52.
- Industry grew 5.0%, Services grew 4.8% and Agriculture remained stable.
- Final consumption grew 3.3%. Household final consumption grew 2.9% and government final consumption expenditure grew 4.2%.
- In 2021, Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) grew 12.9%, after falling 1.7% in 2020. The investment rate was 17.9.
- Gross value added grew 4.5%. In terms of impact, 3.4 percentage points are due to the growth of Services and 1.1 percentage points to the growth of Industry.
- In 2021, eleven of the 12 activity groups remained stable or grew. In 2020, seven of the 12 activity groups had declined.
- The financing need for the Brazilian economy was R$213.5 billion in 2021, an increase of 165% compared to 2020, when it reached R$80.5 billion.
- The share of gross operating surplus in GDP reached the highest level in the historical series that began in 2000, rising from 35.3% of GDP in 2020 to 37.5% in 2021.
In 2021, Brazil’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 4.8%, recovering the 3.3% drop in 2020, resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The added value of services grew 4.8% driven by the recovery in household consumption (2.9%). In current values, GDP was R$9 trillion and GDP per capita was R$42,247.52. The data are from the IBGE National Accounts System.
“The resumption of in-person services paralyzed in 2020, including travel and entertainment, explains part of the growth. Another part was due to the growth of certain industry segments, such as vehicles and machinery and equipment, and the growth of construction”, highlights Cristiano Martins, manager of goods and services for National Accounts at IBGE.
2021 GDP growth was revised from 5.0% to 4.8%. The review resulted mainly from the incorporation of new data on Services activities, made available by IBGE’s Annual Services Survey (PAS). Growth in Services was revised from 5.2% to 4.8%, with emphasis on the revision in the activity Transport, storage and mail (from 12.9% to 6.5%). Industry growth was revised upwards, from 4.8% to 5.0%, while Agriculture was revised from 0.3% to 0.0%.
GDP growth resulted from a 4.5% increase in gross value added, of which 3.4 percentage points (pp) were due to the Services sector and 1.1 pp to Industry.
In 2021, eleven of the twelve groups of economic activities showed growth or stability, with emphasis on Information and communication (13.9%) and Construction (12.6%).
Variation in gross value added (%)
by economic activities
Family consumption grew 2.9%
In 2021, final consumption expenditure, which encompasses consumption by families, governments and non-profit institutions, grew 3.3%, after falling 4.4% in 2020. Government final consumption expenditure, which encompasses expenditure on goods and services offered by the government to the community grew by 4.2%. Family consumption, which represents 60.1% of GDP, grew 2.9%. The price variation of goods and services consumed by families was 11.9%.
Comparing the share of goods and services in household final consumption, it is observed that, in 2021, services grew by 4.0%, while goods grew by 1.9%. The greater growth in services is not enough to recover the entire drop observed in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, when services, which were most affected, fell 10.2% and goods fell -0.7%.
Gross Fixed Capital Formation grows 12.9%
The Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) of the Brazilian economy grew 12.9% in 2021. The current value of GFCF reached R$ 1.6 trillion and the investment rate, which is the ratio between GFCF and GDP, reached a17.9%, growing 1.3 percentage points compared to 2020.
GFCF growth in Machinery and equipment was 11.1%. The Construction group grew 11.9%, Intellectual property products grew 23.9%, while GFCF ofOther fixed assets grew 7.7%.
In 2021, the Machinery and equipment group surpassed Construction as the largest weight in Gross Fixed Capital Formation, and its share rose from 41.5% to 43.8%. Construction accounted for 41.9% of GFCF, Intellectual property products for 12.1% and Other fixed assets for 2.2%.
Participation of capital remuneration in GDP reaches the highest level in the historical series
GDP from the income perspective is measured by the sum of the remuneration of production factors, that is, the income generated in the period plus taxes net of subsidies on production and imports. In 2021, there was an increase in the share of gross operating surplus in GDP (from 35.3% in 2020 to 37.5% in 2021) and taxes net of subsidies on production and imports (from 14.5% to 15.5% of GDP). On the other hand, there was a reduction in the portions referring to wages (39.2% of GDP) and gross mixed income (7.8%).
“The participation of the gross operating surplus in GDP was a record in the historical series that began in 2000. This increase was mainly associated with the performance of the gross value added of the extractive and processing industries, in addition to agriculture, which recorded the largest price variations. On the other hand, the share of remuneration in total GDP has been falling since 2017, reaching 39.2% of GDP in 2021 and returning to the level of 2005. Remuneration includes salaries and social contributions, which represented, respectively, 31.0 % and 8.2% of GDP. In 2021, the share of gross mixed income fell to the lowest level in the series”.
Financing needs of the national economy increase by 165%
The financing need for the Brazilian economy was R$213.5 billion in 2021, an increase of 165% compared to 2020, when it reached R$80.5 billion.
The external balance of goods and services remained positive, going from a surplus of R$46.0 billion in 2020 to R$50.7 billion in 2021.
Financing need for non-financial companies is record: R$321.8 billion
In 2021, the non-financial companies sector presented the greatest financing need in the series started in 2000: R$321.8 billion at current prices.
The manager of institutional sectors for National Accounts, Teresa Bastos, explains that “this happened due to the 35.0% increase in Gross Fixed Capital Formation of non-financial companies in 2021”. The Gross Fixed Capital Formation of non-financial companies reached the value of R$940.9 billion in 2021, the highest value at current prices in the series.
The financial companies sector had a nominal increase in financing capacity of 2.8%, from R$216.9 billion in 2020 to R$222.9 billion in 2021. This contributed to this expansion result in relation to the previous year , the performance of the insurance sector. The added value of the insurance sector fell by 22.6% in 2021 due to both the 10.3% drop in production value and a 3.2% increase in intermediate consumption.
The drop in this insurance production value is related to the large increase in expenses in the supplementary health subsector. This result was influenced by the increase in demand for consultations and exams after the worst year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 23.7% growth in gross fixed capital formation in the financial companies sector in 2021 “suggests the maintenance of the expansion of investments in information technology, aiming to expand the digitalization of operations, mainly in the banking sector”, explains the manager.
