Brazilian foreign debt totaled US$ 174.560 billion at the end of October which represents a US$ 13.7 billion increase, 8.5%, over September reported Monday, November 20, Brazil’s Central Bank.
Brazilian financial authorities said the increase can be attributed to a US$ 13.7 billion US dollars loan for a Brazilian company involved in "a direct investment overseas", but no names were made public.
Medium and long term debt in October was US$ 155.189 billion compared to US$ 141.379 the previous month. Short term debt remained virtually unchanged in the range of US$ 19.5 billion.
These numbers do not include multinational corporation loans to its affiliates in Brazil which totaled US$ 22.845 billion in October.
In related news the Central Bank reported that leading companies from the private sector cut the country’s growth estimate for the second month running to 2.95%. Estimates have been sliding since August peak of 3.6%. However for 2007 the forecast remains unchanged at 3.5%.
Brazilian President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who was re-elected last October has promised annual growth of 5% for his second mandate of four years which begins next January.
In 2005 GDP in Brazil expanded 2.3%.
For the fourth week running private sector estimates that 2006 inflation will be above 3%, from 2.8% a few months ago. However this is in range with the government’s target of 4.5%.
Mercopress
