Brasília (Brazil), December 1: Brazilian financial analysts raised their inflation forecast for 2022 from 5.88 to 5.91 percent, the fifth consecutive weekly hike, while increasing it for next year from 5.01 to 5.02 percent, the Central Bank of Brazil said Monday.
The official inflation target is 3.5 percent at the end of 2022 and 3.25 percent next year, with a 1.5 percentage-point margin of error in both cases.
According to the bank's weekly survey of the country's leading financial institutions, experts estimated the benchmark interest rate, currently at 13.75 percent annually, to remain unchanged until the end of the year and then gradually decrease to close at 11.50 percent in 2023.
Economists slightly raised the gross domestic product growth forecast from 2.80 to 2.81 percent at the end of the year and maintained it at 0.70 percent for next year.
Meanwhile, Brazil's trade surplus was expected to reach 55 billion U.S. dollars in 2022 and 56 billion U.S. dollars in 2023.
Foreign direct investment in the South American country was forecasted to reach 80 billion dollars in 2022 and 75 billion dollars in 2023.
Source: Xinhua
