Brazilian economy faces contraction

Brazil’s economy will contract by 3.3 percent in 2016 and grow 1.3 percent in 2017, said a quarterly economic projection published on Tuesday by the Brazilian Central Bank. According to the report, Brazil will register two consecutive years of economic contraction, after the gross domestic product fell 3.8 percent in 2015. The BCB’s predictions are slightly less positive than those of the financial market economists’ average, which predicted a 3.14-percent economic contraction on Monday for 2016, with economists’ predictions being the same as the BCB’s for 2017.