Brazilian government budget report shows lower GDP growth

The Brazilian government has revised the country's economic growth of this year to 3.8 percent in its latest budget report released on Friday. The estimate, which is lower than the government's previous prediction of 4.5 percent, is still higher than the 3.16 percent expansion forecast by economists of financial institutions in the latest Focus market survey published by the Central Bank on Monday. The more modest projections are underpinned by decreases in the economic activity. IBC-Br, the Central Bank's economic activity indicator, registered a 0.32-percent fall in the third quarter. It was the first quarterly contraction since early 2009, when the Brazilian economy was still under the effects of the global financial crisis. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in its latest report last month that the growth of Brazil's economy will slow down to 3.6 percent in 2011 and the country's economy will grow less than 4 percent in the next two years.