Brasília – Financial market’s investors and analysts raised from 6.53% to 6.56% the inflation projection for 2015, calculated by the Extended National Consumer Price Index (IPCA, in the Portuguese acronym). The projection goes over the 6.5% ceiling of the target rate. The target rate is set at 4.5%, which could vary, up or down, two percentage points.
The projection for economy growth was reduced from 0.55% to 0.5%. The administered prices, those under any type of government influence, such as energy rates, had an estimation of raise going from 7.8% to 7.85%.
The data comes from the Focus report, released weekly by the Brazilian Central Bank (BC). In the document, the expected benchmark interest rates (Selic) stay unchanged since the last estimation, made last week, with 12.5% per year, with the exchange rate in R$ 2.80 (US$ 1.03) – both estimations for the end of the year.
The estimation concerning the net public sector debt-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP – total amount of wealth produced) ratio went from 37% to 37.3%.
There was improvement in the estimation of the current account deficit, one of the main indicators of external accounts, which went from US$ 77.79 billion to US$ 77 billion, with trade balance results in US$ 5 billion, and foreign direct investments estimated in US$ 60 billion.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
