
Brazil announced Thursday it has become the world’s seventh economy after having expanded 7.5% in 2010, the strongest in 24 years. Brazil’s GDP now stands at 2.1 trillion US dollars with a per capita income of 11.185 USD.

Brazilian officials say inflation in January was the highest monthly jump in almost six years. The government's IBGE statistics bureau said that January inflation was 0.83%, the biggest monthly jump since April 2005, when inflation was 0.87%.

Brazil’s industrial output unexpectedly fell for a second straight month in December. Output in December fell 0.7% from November after a 0.2% decline in the previous month, the national statistics agency IBGE said this week.