RIO DE JANEIRO, March 12 (Xinhua) — The increase in Brazil’s household consumption showed that Brazilians were unaffected by the global financial crisis, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Friday.

Lula downplayed criticism over Brazil’s economic performance in 2009 by citing increased consumption by Brazilians.

“If there is a country where the people did not feel the crisis, it is this country, because the family consumption increased by 4.1 percent,” he said.

According to a report released by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, Brazil’s gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 0.2 percent last year, the first decrease since 1992.

Despite the fall in GDP, the government considered the figure a good result, compared to other countries with much sharper falls.

Moreover, Lula accused some parts of the private sector of being too timid in the face of the crisis to make investments, which led to the bad figures in 2009.