São Paulo – Brazilian Central Bank (BC) admitted this Thursday (26th) that the inflation will end 2015 above the target rate established by the National Monetary Council and stated that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country will end the year with a 0.5% retraction. According to the inflation quarterly report, prices will go up 7.9% this year, above the previous forecast released in December, which estimated a 6.1% rate. The target rate is 4.5% per year, with a variation of two percentage points up or down.
According to data from the BC released by Agência Brasil, the Extended National Consumer Price Index (IPCA), which measures the official inflation, should ended 2016 at 4.9%, and 2017 at 4.7%. The report by the BC also forecasts high inflation during the entirety of 2015, displaying a trend of reaching the target rate in 2016.
The BC report also revised down the forecast for the GDP growth of the country of last year. The previous forecast was of 0.2% growth. Now, the expected retraction is of 0.1%.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
