Agriculture was essential to Gravatai's economy during its first two centuries. After the 1950s the city started a process of industrialization. This process was accelerated in 2000 after the inauguration of a General Motors manufacturing plant. Since it's opening 600,000 cars have been built, more than one hundred thousand Chevrolet Celta (also known as Suzuki Fun) and Chevrolet Prisma per year.
Today, manufacturing is the major economic driver and Gravatai has been classified as a blue collar city
