Analysts expect Brazil’s economy to contract by 3.40% this year, with inflation hitting 7.62%, the country’s central bank says, Bernama reported. Last week, analysts said they expected Brazil’s economy to contract by 3.33% this year and prices to rise by 7.61%. The gross domestic product and inflation figures come from the Boletin Focus, a weekly central bank survey of analysts from about 100 private financial institutions on the state of the national economy. If the forecasts prove to be accurate, Brazil’s economy is headed for its worst economic performance since 1990, when it contracted by 4.35%. Brazil’s economy grew just 0.10% in 2014. Analysts expect Latin America’s largest economy to grow by 0.50% in 2017, a number that was revised downward from last week’s 0.59% estimate. Brazil had an inflation rate of 10.67% in 2015, the highest level in 13 years, while the economy contracted by 3.71%, according to analysts surveyed for the Boletin Focus.
