RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's economy will expand by 5 percent in 2010, higher than the 4.83 percent forecast last week, according to the Focus market survey carried out by the country's economists and released on Monday by the Central Bank.

    Brazilian economists also predicted a 0.21-percent GDP growth in 2009, slightly up from the previous forecast of 0.2 percent. The projections for this year's GDP have been increasing steadily since mid-September, when the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) announced that the country's GDP was up 1.9 percent in the second quarter.

    The projections for Brazil's industrial production have also improved. According to the latest Focus survey, industrial production would fall 7.64 percent in 2009, but would pick up and grow 6.55 percent next year. In the previous survey, economists predicted a 7.7 percent fall this year and a 6.05 percent expansion in 2010.

    The forecasts for Brazil's inflation rate in 2009 and 2010 totaled 4.26 percent and 4.41 percent respectively, down from the 4.27 percent and 4.46 percent in last week's survey.

    These figures are below the inflation target set by the Brazilian government of 4.5 percent for this year and the next, with a tolerance of two percentage points. This means that the rate cannot exceed 6.5 percent. Last year, Brazil registered an inflation rate of 5.9 percent.

    The survey also indicates that Brazil's annual basic interest rate, the Selic, would be at 8.75 percent by the end of 2009 and rise to 10.5 percent in 2010, the same from the previous forecasts.

    The projections of the Brazilian real-U.S. dollar exchange rate have also remained the same from the previous survey, with 1.70 reais per dollar by the end of 2009 and 1.75 by the end of 2010.

    Economists also believe Brazil would register a trade surplus of 25.2 billion dollars in 2009, down from the previous forecast of 25.5 billion dollars. The trade surplus in 2010 is projected to total 15 billion dollars, up from the previous forecast of 16 billion dollars. Last year, Brazil registered a trade surplus of 24.7 billion dollars.

    Foreign direct investments were predicted to total 25 billion dollars by the end of 2009 and 35 billion dollars next year, the same from the previous Focus survey. In 2008, foreign direct investments hit a record-high 45 billion dollars.

Special Report:  Global Financial Crisis