Forecasts for Brazil's economic growth are being driven lower by its tighter monetary policy and a slowing global economy, a central bank survey showed on Monday, signalling a steeper-than-expected slowdown is looming. The central bank survey found that forecasts for economic growth this year fell for a third week to a median 3.84 percent in the week ended August 19.
Brazil's economy, the largest in Latin America, is showing signs of slowing after expanding in 2010 at the fastest pace in 24 years, growth that has led to higher interest rates in a bid to contain inflation. While economists in the survey upped their inflation forecasts for this year for the first time in three weeks, projections for prices seem to be stabilising at levels close to the central bank's ceiling of the inflation target for the year. Finance Minister Guido Mantega on Monday vowed to keep a lid on budget spending to help tame inflation in an interview with local newspaper Valor Economico.