BRASILIA: Services activity in Brazil fell in March for the first time in 10 months, official figures showed on Wednesday, meaning the sector shrank in the first quarter of the year back to below pre-pandemic levels.

The figures show the effect of renewed lockdown measures taken to counter the deadly second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the country, and suggest the economy may have contracted in the January-March quarter.

The services sector shrank by a seasonally adjusted 4.0% on the month, government statistics agency IBGE said, more than the median estimate in a Reuters poll of economists of a 3.2% fall.

It was the first decline in activity in 10 months, IBGE said, and meant the sector is 2.8% smaller than it was in February last year just before the pandemic struck.

Services sector output in March was up a non-seasonally adjusted 4.5% from the same month last year, but down a non-seasonally adjusted 0.8% in the quarter from a year earlier.

Activity in the 12 months through March was down a non-seasonally adjusted 8.0% from the same period last year, IBGE said.

Services account for around two-thirds of all activity in Brazil's economy. The sector is 13.6% smaller than its peak in 2014.

Three of the five sub-sectors surveyed shrank in March, IBGE said, led by a 27% slump in services provided to households, including restaurants and hotels, IBGE said.