The bad news came in waves last week. But first, the good news:
- The country’s central bank reported that, global, the country registered a current account deficit of $38.28 billion in the first half of 2015, down 23.39 percent from the same period of last year, when it totaled $49.97 billion. A lot of this deficit was made up by direct foreign investment. Now, the rest:
• The central bank attributed the significant improvement to Brazil’s shrinking economy. During the year’s first half, the dollar appreciated 19.3 percent against the real, raising the cost of air travel and lodging and food expenses abroad for Brazilians, substantially reducing Brazilian tourists’ spending abroad. - Spending by Brazilian international travelers fell from $12.44 billion in the first six months of 2014 to $9.94 billion in the first half of this year, a decline of 20.1 percent.
- A report from Forbes magazine said that Banks are now forecasting economic contraction into 2016. If so, it will be the first time that Brazil’s economy shrank in back-to-back years since the Great Depression. (On July 24, Credit Suisse’s economist Nelson Teixeira put out a note revising his forecast for Brazilian GDP this year to -2.4% from an already bleak -1.8 percent.)
