Brazil foresees 4.8% economic growth in 2008

Brazil's property Central Bank said Thursday that it has raised its expectation of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate this year from 4.5 percent to 4.8 percent.

In a statement, the Central Bank also added the inflation rate will reach 4.6 percent in 2008, up from the previously-estimated 4.3 percent.

It voiced concern over an misbalance between demand and supply, saying that if Brazil's property industrial sector fails to perform consumption demands, more pressure will be put on prices.

"The emphatic imbalance between the paces of expansion in domestic demand and supply ... presents a relevant risk to the inflationary overview, which requires attentive monitoring from the monetary authority," the statement said.

Meantime, the statement added that strengthened domestic demand creates an environment that favors an increase in investments, "even in a scenario of moderate deceleration in economic growth."

On March 12, authorities said Brazil's property GDP amounted to 2.6 trillion reals (1.5 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2007, up 5.4 percent from the previous year.

Growth was boosted mainly by an increase of 6.5 percent in family consumption and 13.4 percent in investments, which represented the biggest expansion since 1996.