Brazil’s growth is a foothill next to the soaring peaks of other BRICs

RICs, anyone?

Brazil’s third quarter growth in GDP bucked expectations on Friday by being especially terrible. The country’s economy expanded by only 0.6% over the  previous quarter, though economists had predicted the number would be closer to 1.2%.

With the exception of its fast recovery in 2010, Brazil’s economy has been puttering compared to the other BRICs—even Russia, which contracted more than 10% in the second quarter of 2009 from the year prior.

Because of Brazil’s poor showing, economists have become more bearish on their still-outstanding predictions for the country’s economy: the median estimate for overall 2012 GDP growth has dropped from 1.50% to 1.27%, and for 2013, from 3.94% to 3.70%.

The data in the chart above was compiled by Factset, except for Chinese GDP growth, which comes from the National Bureau of Statistics of China.