São Paulo, 11/25/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The president of the Central Bank, Henrique Meirelles, says that GDP growth in 2004 could be higher than 3% because of successful fiscal and monetary policies that have laid the foundation for renewed development.

Meirelles went on to say that an essential element in achieving consolidated growth will be renewed investment. He said that such growth would be the result of measures implemented by the government, but that the main challenge remained the country's risk rating which made the cost of financing investments high. (AB)