Central Bank Survey Brazil's Central Bank began reporting median market expectations regarding key economic variables on a biweekly basis in May 1999. Beginning in August 1999, it instituted a more thorough monthly survey of financial institutions, four-fifths of which operate both domestically and abroad. This report compares the August survey the latest such effort undertaken in November, whose results were released by the Central Bank in late December. The Central Bank reported numerical estimates as ranges with the accompanying frequency of responses. In order to arrive at specific numbers, the Embassy applied these weights to the midpoint values of the respective ranges.
Derived values are good approximations of survey averages.
However, they are not exact and are thus probably best interpreted in terms of trends. Macroeconomic Outlook Inflation Respondents were not asked for year 2000 inflation estimates in the August survey. These are 12-month figures for the calendar year. Areas of Concern Respondents were asked to choose the main factors that would limit growth in 2000 and could list as many as they wished. Results diverged significantly, indicating a noticeable shift in perceptions between August and November.