LatinNews Daily - 29 September 2023

* Brazil’s central bank (BCB) has released the latest edition of its quarterly report Relátorio de Inflação, which showed an annual GDP growth forecast of 2.9% and annual inflation forecast of 5.01% for 2023. This growth projection marks an increase from the 2.0% forecast in the report’s previous edition released in June. The BCB’s latest growth forecast is lower than the government’s forecast of 3.2% released by the finance ministry earlier this month. But the central bank and the finance ministry’s reports both predicted that the agricultural sector would be the greatest driver of Brazil’s GDP growth for 2023. The BCB projected 13.0% annual growth for agriculture, while the finance ministry projected 14.0%. In terms of inflation for the remainder of 2023, the BCB’s report predicted that accumulated annual inflation would slow down from 5.31% in September to 5.01% by the end of the year, although this December figure is still above the BCB’s 2023 annual inflation of target range of 3.25% +/-1.5.