BRASILIA, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- The Brazilian financial market raised its forecast for gross domestic product (GDP) growth this year from 0.76 percent to 0.8 percent and maintained the estimate for 2024 at 1.5 percent, the Central Bank of Brazil said Wednesday.

According to the bank's survey of the country's top financial institutions, the inflation estimate for this year went from 5.79 percent to 5.89 percent, while for 2024 it went from 4 percent to 4.02 percent.

The official target is set at 3.25 percent inflation in 2023 and 3 percent next year, with a margin of tolerance of 1.5 percentage points in both cases.

Analysts maintained the forecast for the benchmark interest rate, currently at 13.75 percent annually, at 12.75 percent at the end of this year and expect it to fall gradually in 2024 to close at 10 percent.

Regarding the exchange rate, currently at 5.18 reals per U.S. dollar, economists set it at 5.25 reals per U.S. dollar by the end of 2023 and 5.29 reals by the end of next year.

Experts also estimated a trade balance surplus of 57.85 billion U.S. dollars for 2023 and 56.75 billion U.S. dollars for 2024.

Meanwhile, Brazil's foreign direct investment was expected to reach 80 billion U.S. dollars for both 2023 and 2024.