By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter
SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – The latest report from the United Nation agency ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) shows a growth of 0.4 percent for the Brazil’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2017. The forecast is in the Preliminary Balance of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean 2016, released on Wednesday.
According to the report the region ‘will resume growth but moderately and without clear engines driving it’.
“Its [region’s] recovery will be fragile as long as the uncertainties of the economic context continue, particularly the recently observed protectionist trends,” stated Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of ECLAC during a press conference in Santiago, Chile, on Wednesday.
Adding, “For this reason, resuming the path of regional growth requires much caution and a reversal of the investment process dynamic, which will demand a significant mobilization of financial resources.”
The U.N. entity’s estimate of the GDP is more pessimistic than the forecast made by the Brazilian government and economists for the indicator. In November, the country’s Finance Ministry forecast the economy’s economic growth at one percent in 2017, while the most recent forecast by the Focus Bulletin, a weekly survey conducted by the Central Bank with financial institutions, forecasts an increase of 0.7 percent for the Brazil’s GDP next year.
The ECLAC report also estimates a contraction by 3.6 percent of Brazilian GDP in 2016. The negative result is only better than those calculated for Suriname (contraction of 10.4 percent) and Venezuela (decrease of 9.7 percent). The latest Focus Bulletin forecasts a 2016 GDP contraction of 3.48 percent.