MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian foreign debt totals 174.5 billion US dollars

Brazilian foreign debt totaled 174.560 billion US dollars at the end of October which represents a 13.7 billion US dollars increase, 8.5%, over September reported Monday the Central
Bank.

Brazilian financial authorities said the increase can be attributed to a 13.7 billion US dollars loan for a Brazilian company involved in "a direct investment overseas", but no names were made public.

Medium and long term debt in October was 155.189 billion US dollars compared to 141.379 the previous month. Short term debt remained virtually unchanged in the range of 19.5 billion US dollars.

These numbers do not include multinational corporation loans to its affiliates in Brazil which totaled 22.845 billion US dollars in October.

In related news the Central Bank reported that leading companies from the private sector cut the country's growth estimate for the second month running to 2.95%. Estimates have been sliding since August peak of 3.6%. However for 2007 the forecast remains unchanged at 3.5%.

Brazilian president Lula da Silva who was re-elected last October has promised annual growth of 5% for his second mandate of four years which begins next January.

In 2005 GDP in Brazil expanded 2.3%.

For the fourth week running private sector estimates that 2006 inflation will be above 3%, from 2.8% a few months ago. However this is in range with the government's target of 4.5%.