UPDATE 1-Brazil GDP grows, ends a two-quarter recession

* Q2 GDP rises better-than-expected 1.9 percent over Q1

* Growth lifts Brazil out of two-quarter recession

* Economy contracts 1.2 percent year-over-year

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SAO PAULO, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Brazil made a stronger-than-expected exit from recession in the second quarter, government data showed on Friday, returning to growth after a two-quarter slump in Latin America's largest economy sparked by the global financial crisis.

Brazil's gross domestic product grew a better-than-expected 1.9 percent from the previous quarter BRGDP=ECI, confirming that a recovery is well under way.

GDP had been expected to grow 1.6 percent quarter-on-quarter, according to the median forecast of 20 analysts polled by Reuters. Estimates for growth had ranged between 0.7 percent and 2.2 percent.

Gross domestic product had fallen 1 percent in the first quarter of 2009, a revision from the previously-reported 0.8 percent decline. That contraction was a second straight quarter of slumping GDP that put the economy in a technical recession.

But Brazil's economy has since shown signs of a robust recovery, even as other major economies are struggling to emerge from recession. Analysts say the economy was shielded from a deep recession by the country's solid banking system and has been boosted by a series of government tax breaks and sharp cuts in interest rates.

Finance Minister Guido Mantega said last month that the economy was already growing at a pace of 4 percent at the beginning of the third quarter. He predicted growth of 1.8 to 2 percent in the second quarter.

Brazil's economy declined 1.2 percent year-on-year BRGDPY=ECI in the second quarter, a better performance than the 1.5 percent fall that was the median Reuters poll forecast. Estimates for the contraction had ranged from 0.6 percent to 2.2 percent. (Reporting by Luciana Lopez, Elzio Barreto, Rodrigo Viga Gaier and Guillermo Parra-Bernal, editing by W Simon)