Brazil posted a current account surplus of $593 million in February, compared with a surplus of $647 million in the same month a year ago, the central bank said on Friday. The surplus was lower than the $800 million median forecast of 16 economists surveyed by Reuters. The forecasts ranged from $475 million to $930 million.
In the 12 months through February, the current account surplus was equivalent to 1.46 percent of gross domestic product, compared with 1.47 percent of GDP in the 12 months through January. Foreign direct investment, which falls under the capital account of the balance of payments, fell to $1.38 billion in February compared with $2.41 billion in January. It stood at $854 million in February 2006. That was lower than the $1.5 billion median estimate of analysts in the survey.
In the release of the latest external accounts indicators, the central bank raised its estimate for the 2007 current account surplus to $7.7 billion from a previous estimate of $4.5 billion.
Altamir Lopes, head of economic research at the central bank, said the current account surplus would be $200 million in March. Lopes forecast foreign direct investment would total $1.2 billion in March. Foreign investment reached $950 million this month through Friday, he said.
The bank also increased Brazil's 2007 trade surplus forecast to $37 billion from $35 billion, with exports rising to $149 billion from a previous estimate of $145 billion, while imports are seen rising to $112 billion from $110 billion. It boosted the forecast for foreign direct investment to $20 billion from $18 billion.
The current account indicators gauge the net flow of external transactions, including foreign trade, interest payments, and services like tourism. It is seen as a measure of a country's reliance on foreign capital.
Comments
Comments are closed.