Brasília – The Brazilian Central Bank has reduced its economic growth estimate to 4% this year, due to macroprudential measures adopted to restrict access to credit, according to the Quarterly Inflation Report, disclosed this Wednesday (30th) by the institution.
The previous estimate was that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would increase by 4.5% this year. The projection has been reduced further from the 5% forecasted by the minister of Finance, Guido Mantega.
Compared with the report issued in December, projections of growth have dropped across all sectors of economy: industry (from 5.4% to 4.2%), trade (from 5% to 4.2%), services (from 4.2% to 3.8%) and agriculture (from 3.3% to 1.9%).
As to the fiscal policy, the Central Bank report indicates that that the primary surplus target (savings to pay interest on the foreign debt) of 117.9 billion reals (US$ 71 billion), equivalent to 2.9% of the GDP in 2011, will be met, and admits that a primary surplus of 3.1% of the GDP may be recorded next year.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
