BRASILIA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian financial analysts reduced this year's inflation forecast for the second week running, said the Central Bank (BC) on Monday.
The rate was reduced to 4.11 percent from the 4.15 percent of the previous week.
According to a Focus poll, analysts anticipate inflation of 4.1 percent for next year.
Analysts maintained the 1.5 percent GDP growth forecast for this year as well as the 2.5 percent growth predicted for 2019.
Last week, the BC reduced their official GDP forecast from 2.6 percent to 1.6 percent for this year.
Economists kept the Special Clearance and Escrow System (Selic) basic interest rate of 6.5 percent for the eighth week running, and left the 8 percent rate for the end of 2019 unchanged.
The exchange rate projection remained at 3.7 reais per U.S. dollar until the end of 2018 and rose from 3.68 to 3.7 units per U.S. dollar at the end of 2019.
Analysts also reduced this year's expected trade balance of 57.81 billion U.S. dollars to 57.5 billion U.S. dollars in surplus, while maintaining next year's prediction of 49.3 billion U.S. dollars.
