BRASILIA, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Economists raised their forecasts for Brazil's 2015 inflation rate for a second straight week and further above the official target, a weekly central bank poll showed on Monday.
Inflation is expected to end 2015 at 6.60 percent, up from 6.56 pecent in the prior week's survey, according to the median forecast of about 100 market economists.
Brazil's government targets an inflation rate of 4.5 percent, with a tolerance margin of two percentage points.
The median estimate for economic growth this year fell to 0.40 percent from 0.50 percent previously.
(pct) 2015 2016 previous new previous new forecast forecast forecast forecast Consumer inflation 6.56 6.60 5.70 5.70 Exchange rate 2.80 2.80 2.80 2.83 (reais per U.S dollar, end-period) Interest rate 12.50 12.50 11.50 11.50 (end-period) GDP growth 0.50 0.40 1.80 1.80 Industrial output 1.04 1.02 2.68 2.65 (Reporting by Silvio Cascione; Editing by Hugh Lawson)