BRASILIA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian financial market analysts lowered the forecasted 2019 gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate from 0.93 percent to 0.87 percent, Brazil's central bank said Monday.
At the start of the year, the growth forecast stood at 2.55 percent for 2019, according to the weekly Focus Bulletin survey conducted by the bank.
Official GDP results for the first quarter, released by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), revealed a drop of 0.2 percent, the first decline on a quarter-over-quarter basis since the fourth quarter of 2016, which impacted the expected growth for the current year.
For 2020, the economists maintained a forecast growth level of 2.2 percent, the bank said.
In terms of inflation, the analysts estimated a rate of 3.82 percent for this year -- down from previous forecast of 3.84 percent -- and 3.95 percent for 2020. The forecast remains within the official goal of 4.25 percent, with a tolerance range between 2.75 and 5.75 percent.
Foreign direct investment into Brazil was forecasted at 85 billion U.S. dollars in 2019 and 84.28 billion dollars in 2020.
The Brazilian economy has grown at an average rate of 0.6 percent per year in the past eight years, Minister of Economy Paulo Guedes said earlier this month. The government has proposed the reform of the social security system to recover the economy, but the bill still awaits the congress' approval.
