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Brazil targets 4% GDP growth in 2014
August 30, 2013, 10:06 am

[AP]

The projections have been sent to the Brazilian Congress [AP]

Brazil has set a target of four per cent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) next year, although the forecast depends heavily on conditions in the European Union and United States.

The projections in the proposed 2014 budget and a proposal for minimum wage increase were sent to the Brazilian Congress on Thursday.

The Brazilian government also forecast a primary public-sector surplus of 2.1 per cent for 2014.

According to the proposed 2014 budget, the target fiscal surplus will drop from 2.3 of GDP this year to 2.1 per cent in 2014, the lowest level since 2009.

Brazil’s Finance Minister Guido Mantega admitted the four per cent forecast was “long-range and ambitious”, given the global turmoil, but said the figures would be revised again at the beginning of next year.

Meanwhile on Thursday, Brazilian Minister of Planning Miriam Belchior proposed a 6.6 per cent minimum wage increase beginning in January 2014, to raise the basic income from 678 reals to 722.9 reals (or from $288 to $308).

Belchior said the wage increase was based on a 2011 law, which requires the annual minimum wage adjustment to consider the previous year’s inflation rate and GDP growth from past years.

Brazil recently revised its GPD growth forecast for 2013 from four per cent to 2.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, President Dilma Rousseff said Brazil can deal with the surging dollar due to its high forex reserves, currently amounting to $372 billion.

“We are certainly among the five or six countries in the world with the biggest foreign currency reserves,” President Rousseff said during a radio interview.

“We have what is called ‘ammunition’ to deal with those global situations,” added the president.

With inputs from Agencies