BRASILIA, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Economists sharply increased their estimates for Brazil's economic contraction in 2015 and 2016 after third-quarter GDP came in lower than expected last week, a weekly central bank poll showed on Monday.
The median estimate of about 100 economists projected Brazil's gross domestic product to fall 3.50 percent in 2015 and 2.31 percent in 2016, in the longest downturn of Latin America's largest economy since the 1930s, from 3.19 and 2.04 percent in the prior week's survey.
Brazil's economy shrank 1.7 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months, government statistics agency IBGE said last week.
(pct) 2015 2016 previous new previous new forecast forecast forecast forecast Consumer inflation 10.38 10.44 6.64 6.70 Exchange rate 3.95 3.95 4.20 4.20 (reais per U.S dollar, end-period) Interest rate -- -- 14.13 14.25 (end-period) GDP growth -3.19 -3.50 -2.04 -2.31 Industrial output -7.50 -7.60 -2.30 -2.40 (Reporting by Silvio Cascione, editing by Louise Heavens)