Brazil markets revise down 2019 growth forecast to 2.01 pct

BRASILIA, March 18 (Xinhua) -- BRAZIL's financial market revised down the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth forecast for 2019 from 2.28 to 2.01 percent, the Central Bank of BRAZIL said Monday.

According to a Focus survey done by the bank among the country's main financial institutions, bank economists kept the forecasted GDP growth at 2.8 percent for next year.

In respect to the inflation index, analysts forecast 3.87-3.89 percent for this year and kept it at 4 percent for next year.

The forecasts are within the official target of 4.25 percent with a tolerance range of 2.75 to 5.75 percent.

The numbers confirm the expectation that the monetary authority will keep the Selic interest rate at its current level of 6.5 percent annually, the lowest in history, at least through the end of 2019.

For 2020, the financial market expects an increase in the Selic, which would end the year at 7.75 percent.

The forecast for the exchange rate remained at 3.7 reals to one U.S. dollar for the end of 2019 and 3.75 reals at the end of 2020.

The trade balance forecast is a positive balance of 50 billion U.S. dollars in 2019 and 46 billion U.S. dollars in 2020.

The forecast for direct foreign investment in BRAZIL is at 80 billion dollars for 2019 and 82.3 billion dollars for 2020.