Brasilia, Oct 25 (IANS): Financial analysts upgraded their forecast for Brazil's economic growth for 2022 from 2.71 per cent to 2.76 per cent, and from 0.59 per cent to 0.63 per cent for 2023, the central bank said.

According to the bank's weekly survey of the country's leading financial institutions, market analysts lowered the inflation forecast for the year from 5.62 per cent to 5.6 per cent, and from 4.97 per cent to 4.94 per cent for the next year, reports Xinhua news agency.

The government's inflation target is 3.5 per cent for 2022 and 3.25 per cent for 2023, with a margin of error of 1.5 percentage points in both cases.

Regarding the benchmark interest rate, currently at 13.75 per cent annually, analysts expected it to remain unchanged until the end of the year and to gradually decline to 11.25 per cent by the end of 2023.

Meanwhile, Brazil's trade surplus was expected to reach $56.15 billion in 2022 and $56 billion in 2023.

Economists also forecast foreign direct investment to hit $68 billion in 2022 and $70 billion next year.