Bolivia's economy grew 3.8 percent in the third quarter of 2017 from a year earlier, the economy minister said on Friday, as expansion in agriculture, construction and services helped compensate for weak natural gas sales to neighbouring Brazil.

The small Andean country's economy depends on shipments of natural gas to Brazil and Argentina, South America's No. 1 and No. 2 economies, respectively. Brazil, still recovering from a deep recession, reduced its purchases of Bolivian gas to less than half of the volume stipulated in the sales contract, data from the Hydrocarbon Ministry show.

Copyright Reuters, 2017