The Brazilian economy, the largest in Latin America, grew 7.7 percent in the third quarter (Q3) compared with the second quarter of 2020, the government reported Thursday.

The third quarter saw the highest quarterly growth in Brazil's economy since 1996, according to the state-run Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

Brazil's economy shrank an accumulated 5 percent from January to September compared with the same period in 2019. Despite the growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in Q3, it is still "insufficient" to compensate for losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the IBGE said.

The Brazilian economy registered negative growth in the first two quarters. In the first quarter, the economy contracted 1.5 percent from the final quarter of 2019, and in the second, it contracted a record 9.6 percent. Enditem