Brazilian market upgrades 2024 economic growth forecast to 2.23 pct

BRASILIA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) — Brazil’s financial market upgraded its economic growth forecast for 2024 from 2.20 percent to 2.23 percent, but downgraded expected growth for 2025 from 1.92 percent to 1.89 percent, the Central Bank of Brazil said Monday.
According to the bank’s weekly Focus survey of leading financial institutions in the South American country, at the start of the year, economists were projecting a 1.52 percent growth in the gross domestic product (GDP).
Regarding inflation, the projection rose from 4.20 percent to 4.22 percent for the year and declined from 3.97 percent to 3.91 percent for the next, in both cases falling within the official target rate of 3 percent with a margin of tolerance of 1.5 percentage points either up or down.
Market analysts expect the benchmark interest rate to remain at the current level of 10.50 percent until the end of the year and to register 10 percent by the end of next year.
Brazil’s currency, currently trading at 5.46 reals to the U.S. dollar, is expected to trade at 5.31 to the dollar by the end of 2024 and at 5.30 by the end of 2025.
The trade balance (exports versus imports) is expected to record a surplus of 82.44 billion dollars in 2024 and 78.5 billion dollars in 2025.
Foreign direct investment is expected to reach 70 billion dollars this year and 71.2 billion dollars the next. ■