RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's financial market raised its inflation forecast for 2022 to 5.61 percent, after 17 straight weeks of lowering its projections, the Central Bank of Brazil said on Monday.

According to the bank's weekly focus survey of the country's leading financial institutions, analysts raised projected inflation from 5.60 to 5.61 percent, but kept their 2023 forecast unchanged at 4.94 percent.

The central bank's inflation target for this year is 3.5 percent, with a margin of error of 1.5 percentage points.

Analysts' economic growth forecast for 2022 held steady at 2.76 percent, but for 2023, it rose for the fifth consecutive week to 0.64 percent.

Analysts estimate the benchmark interest rate, currently at 13.75 percent annually, will remain unchanged until the end of the year, but drop to 11.25 percent in 2023.

The market maintained its exchange rate forecast at 5.20 Brazilian reals to the U.S. dollar for both 2022 and 2023.