Brazil's gross domestic product will register a fall of 0.34 percent in 2009, said a market survey released on Monday by the country's central bank.
The projection, though still negative, is less pessimistic than the previous forecast of a 0.5-percent decline. The steadily improving results in surveys done in the past weeks reflect experts' soaring confidence in the country's current and future economic scenario.
According to the survey, the Brazilian economy is expected to rebound in 2010 and score a 3.5-percent growth.
However, the survey revealed that the industrial sector will suffer a major decline of 6 percent, higher than the 5.3-percent prediction in the previous survey.
The industrial sector has already shrunk by 7.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 and 3.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009.
According to the survey, Brazil will see an inflation rate of 4.5 percent in 2009, which is also the inflation target set by the central bank for this year. In the previous survey, economists had predicted an inflation rate of 4.4 percent.
Brazil's accumulated inflation rate in the first six months of 2009 was 2.57 percent.
The survey predicted an inflation rate of 4.4 percent for 2010, up from 4.3 percent in the previous survey. The country's target inflation rate for the year is also 4.5 percent, with a two percentage point tolerance.
As for the exchange rate, the survey said it will stabilize at around 1.99 reais per U.S. dollar by the end of 2009.
The country's annual basic interest rate will be 8.75 percent by the end of 2009 and 9.25 percent by the end of 2010. Its current basic interest rate is 9.25 percent.
Last year, the Brazilian economy managed to grow 5.08 percent despite the global economic crisis. Its GDP shrunk by 3.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 and 0.8 percent in the first quarter of 2009.
Government officials said they believe booming economic results in the second half of 2009 will compensate for negative performances earlier in the year.
Source:Xinhua
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