Brazil Primary Budget Surplus: -71.729B (December) vs previous -19.567B

U.S. economic growth slowed down sharply in the fourth quarter with economy growing 0.7 per cent, lower than expected 0.8 per cent growth rate and much lower than the 2 per cent growth pace seen in the third quarter. Growth has been hit by rising inventory which to a loss of appetite to restock. This impacted overall factory activity. Strong dollar and weak global economic outlook hurt exporters. The economy grew at a 1.6 per cent pace excluding inventories and trade indicating the huge negative impact of the slowing down of manufacturing sector trade on GDP. The economic expansion stayed unchanged in 2015 at 2.4 per cent. The Federal Reserve acknowledged that growth "slowed late last year".