Brazil CB Sees GDP Rebound

Brazil central bank governor Henrique Meirelles says that the country’s economy is on track to expand by 5.0% this year, up from an estimated 0.2% in 2009. “After several decades of low growth and macroeconomic vulnerability, Brazil’s economy is now in its strongest macroeconomic position ever,” Meirelles says.“The sound macroeconomic policies adopted during the last years, including firm regulatory controls, inflation targeting, a floating exchange rate regime and a fiscal policy that enabled the public debt-to-GDP ratio to decline during the period, enabled Brazil to achieve strong economic fundamentals,” he adds. The governor also expects FDI to leap to $45.0bn in 2010 from $25.9bn the previous year. Net debt, meanwhile, is expected to drop to 41.0% of GDP by year-end 2011 from 43.0% at year-end 2010, and 44.1% at the end of 2009.