UPDATE 1-Brazil GDP up 2 pct in Q4, recovery steady

* Brazil Q4 GDP rises 2 pct from Q3, versus 2.1 forecast

* Fourth-quarter GDP up 4.3 percent from year ago

* Economy shrank 0.2 pct in 2009

SAO PAULO, March 11 (Reuters) - Brazil's economy grew in line with expectations in the last three months of 2009, underscoring the country's steady recovery, government data showed on Thursday.

Brazil's economy grew 2 percent in the fourth quarter from the third quarter BRGDP=ECI, bringing total growth in 2009 to minus 0.2 percent, as forecast in a Reuters poll.

Capital spending over the same quarterly periods surged 6.6 percent, as household consumption rose 1.9 percent.

Gross domestic product in Latin America's biggest economy had been expected to rise 2.1 percent from the third quarter, according to the median forecast of 16 analysts polled by Reuters. Estimates for growth ranged between 1.6 percent and 2.8 percent.

Brazil's economy grew 4.3 percent year-on-year BRGDPY=ECI in the fourth quarter, near the 4.4 percent jump median from a Reuters poll. Estimates for year-on-year growth ranged from 2.9 percent to 6.0 percent.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier and Stuart Grudgings; Writing by Luciana Lopez; Editing by Padraic Cassidy)