Brazil's economy will contract 0.5% in 2015 and inflation will climb to 7.9%, ending the year far outside the tolerance range, the Central Bank admitted on Thursday in its latest quarterly inflation report.
Financial experts expect Brazil's economy to shrink 0.83% in 2015, its biggest contraction since 1990, and inflation to climb to 8.12%, its highest level since 2003, according to the results of a Central Bank survey released on Monday.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff pledged to hold talks with her growing number of critics and said her embattled government needed to show humility, after the Sunday massive protests erupted across the country.
Brazil's Central Bank appears likely to continue raising interest rates in the short-term, saying in its most recent meeting that its inflation-fighting effort in recent months has been insufficiently effective. The view was reflected in the minutes, published on Thursday, of its monetary policy committee's March 4 meeting, when the bank raised its benchmark Selic interest rate by 50 basis points to 12.75%.
Inflation jumped in Brazil on February with price increases hitting an annual rate of 7.7%, the highest in nearly nine years, officials said on Friday. The national statistics institute IBGE said prices rose 1.22% in February, pushing inflation well above the government's target ceiling of 6.5%.
Brazil’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to 12.75% Wednesday, the highest level since 2009, as it struggles to get price increases under control amid sluggish economic growth and deepening political turmoil.
Brazil's consumer price inflation accelerated in January, putting the 12-month rate well above the central bank's tolerance band and at the highest level since September 2011, underscoring one of the main challenges facing Latin America's largest economy in the year ahead.
Brazil's central bank raised interest rates to a more than three-year high on Wednesday, maintaining an aggressive pace of monetary tightening to contain high inflation, help the economy back on its tracks and win investors disillusioned with the once-booming economy.
Brazil's central bank is expected to raise interest rates for a third straight meeting this week to quell any doubts about its commitment to ending years of high inflation.
Brazil's Central Bank is concerned about inflation, now running at 6.75%, according to the minutes of last week meeting of the policy committee, released on Thursday.