Finance minister keeps estimated growth of Brazil economy at 0.5%

In a statement made Thursday (Jul 6), Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles said the estimated growth of the Brazilian economy this year was kept at 0.5%. He talked to the press after arriving at a hotel in Hamburg, Germany, to take part in the G20 meeting.

On June 28, Meirelles had said the country's GDP was likely to increase in 2017 less than the 0.5% forecast by the government, and added that a new estimate would be released in a few days.

Meirelles also mentioned the lower inflation and the reduction in interest. “In short, [the country is] on a positive, virtuous trajectory—inflation and interest on the wane, and the economy on the rise. Seems good, right?”

Asked to what extent the economy remains unaffected by the political crisis, the minister answered that the Brazilian economy has always responded to the economic policy. In his opinion, the economic feel safe with the confidence that the current economy policy is to be preserved. “The economic policy is not expected to be reversed,” he said.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira