São Paulo – The minister of Finance, Henrique Meirelles, admitted this Wednesday (28) that Brazil’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) should grow less in 2017 than was estimated by the government. The official forecast points to a 0.5% GDP growth. The minister called the change “moderate” and said that the government should make public a new forecast in the next few days.
“It’s important to point out that there’s a certain adjustment, but not one that brings a significant impact,” said the minister, when asked about the impacts of the political crisis on the economy.
Meirelles also said that the growth forecast for Q4 2017 in comparison to the same period of 2016 will also be revised down. “We came about, at one point, to [forecast a growth of] 2.7%. We still haven’t formally changed this position but, in fact, it tends to go down. But it’s not something that will be below 2%. It will be above 2%. Anything between 2% and 2.7%. We have there an impact [from the political crisis], but a moderate impact,” he said.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
