Published May 12, 2014/EFE
Private sector analysts have revised their 2014 growth forecasts for Brazil’s economy upward to 1.69 percent from 1.63 percent last week, the Central Bank said Monday.
Analysts revised their 2014 inflation estimate downward to 6.39 percent from 6.50 percent, keeping it within the government’s acceptable range.
The gross domestic product (GDP) and inflation estimates were included in the Boletin Focus, a weekly Central Bank survey of analysts from about 100 private financial institutions on the state of the national economy.
The downward revision in the inflation forecast comes in the wake of reports showing that price pressures eased in April after trending higher earlier in previous months.
Brazil posted an inflation rate of 0.67 percent in April, the lowest level in the past three months, pushing the inflation rate to 6.28 percent on a year-on-year basis.
The government has an inflation target of 4.50 percent for this year, with a 2 percent band that allows a top end rate of 6.50 percent.
The government expects South America’s largest economy to grow 2.5 percent this year, while the Central Bank said in its latest quarterly analysis that a 2 percent growth rate was likely in 2014. EFE