Brasília, 3/25/2004 (Agência Brasil) - In its monthly report on the country's foreign account situation, the Central Bank says that "the situation this year is more favorable due to strength in foreign trade and signs of renewed growth."

A current account surplus of US$196 million in February brought the surplus for the first two months of the year to US$865 million, mainly due to a strong trade surplus. For the sake of comparison, it should be pointed out that during the same period last year there was current account defict of US$263 million. All of which has led the bank to revise its forecast for the year-end current account situation, from an estimated deficit of US$3.9 billion, to a surplus of US$200 million.

As for the month of March, the Central Bank is now estimating a surplus in the current account of US$300 million. The optimism has spread to bank estimates for direct foreign investments for the year which have now risen to US$13 billion, according to the head of the bank's Economic Department, Altamir Lopes. (translator: Allen Bennett)