BRASILIA: Industrial production in Brazil rose in December for an eighth month, figures showed on Tuesday, but not enough to prevent the biggest yearly decline in four years, which means the sector is still significantly smaller than its peak almost a decade ago.

While December’s 0.9% jump in output was far higher than economists had expected, the accumulated fall in output last year was 4.5%, more than four times the 1.1% contraction the year before.

It was the biggest yearly fall since the 6.4% fall in 2016, statistics agency IBGE said.

Purchasing managers index data and industrial confidence surveys for January show the sector has started 2021 on an unsteady footing, with a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and end of emergency government cash transfers weighing heavily.

IBGE figures showed that industrial output rose 0.9% in December from the prior month, more than four times the median estimate in a Reuters poll of economists for a rise of 0.2%. The main drivers of December’s output growth were metals, autos and mining, IBGE said.