Brazil economic growth surges in first quarter

The Associated Press June 8, 2010, 8:22AM ET

SAO PAULO

Brazil's government says Latin America's largest economy surged in the first quarter on strong domestic demand in the nation of more than 190 million.

The IBGE government statistics agency says the economy grew 9 percent in the January-March period compared to the same quarter last year.

Brazil is bouncing back strongly from the global economic meltdown. Economists and the government predict Brazil's economy could expand 6 percent this year following a slight contraction for 2009.

The IBGE said Tuesday that annual growth ending in March of this year was 2.4 percent. That figure includes two quarters of negative growth last year. Brazil was among the last nations to be hit by the meltdown and among the first to emerge from it.