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BRASILIA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's financial market lowered its inflation forecast for 2016 from 7.6 percent to 7.21 percent, according to an official poll released on Monday.
The monthly poll, carried out by the central bank with the country's leading financial institutions, showed that inflation expectations for 2017 ticked down from 5.3 percent to 5.29 percent.
Both figures remain above the government's target of 4.5 percent, with a two-percent margin.
In terms of the base interest rate, which the central bank maintained at 14.25 percent earlier this month, financial experts predict that it will be lowered to 13 percent in 2016 and to 11 percent in 2017.
However, predictions for gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2016 worsened a slight bit, with respondents shifting from a 3.25 percent contraction to 3.27 percent.
For 2017, they expected a return to growth of 1.1 percent of GDP.
The exchange rate is projected to stand at 3.34 reais to 1 U.S. dollar at the end of this year and at 3.5 at the end of 2017.
The financial market also expects foreign direct investment worth 63.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2016 and a small rise to 65 billion dollars in 2017.
