Brazilian financial analysts slightly upgraded their growth forecast for 2020, from a 4.41% drop in gross domestic product (GDP) to a 4.4% drop, the Central Bank of Brazil reported.
After getting out of its most severe recession in history in 2017, Brazil remains in a state of economic malaise, notching up a mere 1% of growth last year, with public debt forecast to snowball from 77% of GDP to 140% by 2030, according to the World Bank.
Brazilian President Michel Temer said this week that his administration has taken the country out of debt and successfully overcome the brutal economic recession of the past two years.
Brazil’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday to a new low of 6.75%, but hinted it was now done with a historic easing cycle. The bank lowered the Selic rate by 0.25 percentage point, its 11th consecutive cut aimed at helping Latin America’s largest economy emerge from a stifling two-year recession.
Brazil is set to show a return to growth, the Central Bank indicated Monday, raising hopes that Latin America’s biggest economy could be inching out of a two-year recession.
Brazilian President Michel Temer on Thursday unveiled a raft of stimulus measures to reduce the debt burden of businesses and consumers struggling with the country's worst recession on record amid growing popular discontent. Although limited in scope, the measures aim to appease Brazilians angry at the deepening recession in Latin America's biggest economy and allegations of corruption against Temer and his closest allies.
Brazil’s recession is expected to deepen this year as economists brace for an even steeper contraction than in 2015. Economists have downgraded their 2016 outlook for Latin America’s largest economy for the 15th week in a row, according to the weekly Focus survey of about 100 economists by the Brazilian central bank.
Brazil’s Finance Minister Nelson Barbosa is expected to announce as much as 60bn Reais (US$15bn) in loans as the government seeks to revive growth amid the worst economic downturn in over a century.
Brazil President Dilma Rousseff cited the nation's foreign currency reserves as a backstop to excessive volatility and weakness in the Brazilian Real.
Standard & Poor's has stripped Brazil of its investment-grade credit rating, further hampering President Dilma Rousseff's efforts to regain market trust and pull Latin America's largest economy out of recession.