BRASÍLIA: Brazil on Thursday raised its growth forecast for 2017 and 2018, citing "increased confidence" and "a combination of positive factors" for Latin America's largest economy, which is recovering from two years of recession.
Economy Minister Henrique Meirelles said that GDP was now forecast to grow 1.1 percent, up from an original 0.5 percent. For 2018, the expected growth was now 3 percent, up from 2 percent.
"We see a very strong increase in confidence, thanks to (better) fiscal control, the approval of a freeze on public spending and reforms in general," Meirelles said at a news conference.
In the first three quarters of the year, Brazil's GDP grew by 0.9 percent compared to the same period a year ago.
The country is trying to bounce back from its worst recession on record, with 3.8 percent shrinkage in 2015 and 3.6 percent last year, reversing what had been touted as one of the world's most promising markets.
Center-right President Michel Temer, who is battling a criminal corruption charge, is pushing austerity cuts, looser labor laws and a big privatization program that he says will revive the economy.
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