Brazil's 2022 growth forecast revised up to 2.76 pct

BRASILIA, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Financial analysts upgraded their forecast for Brazil's economic growth for 2022 from 2.71 percent to 2.76 percent, and from 0.59 percent to 0.63 percent for 2023,, the Central Bank of Brazil said Monday.

According to the bank's weekly survey of the country's leading financial institutions, market analysts lowered the inflation forecast for the year from 5.62 percent to 5.6 percent, and from 4.97 percent to 4.94 percent for the next year.

The government's inflation target is 3.5 percent for 2022 and 3.25 percent for 2023, with a margin of error of 1.5 percentage points in both cases.

Regarding the benchmark interest rate, currently at 13.75 percent annually, analysts expected it to remain unchanged until the end of the year and to gradually decline to 11.25 percent by the end of 2023.

Meanwhile, Brazil's trade surplus was expected to reach 56.15 billion U.S. dollars in 2022 and 56 billion U.S. dollars in 2023.

Economists also forecast foreign direct investment to hit 68 billion U.S. dollars in 2022 and 70 billion U.S. dollars next year.