IMF says to revise up 2010 global growth forecast

An analyst walks past a billboard displaying international share indexes as he attends a news conference on the Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing announcing the 2009 interim results in Hong Kong August 12, 2009.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund will increase its forecast for global growth next year in the next few days to account for a faster recovery in major economies, its deputy director said on Monday.

The IMF will raise its forecast for 2010 global growth to about 3 percent from 2.5 percent, said Murilo Portugal, the fund's deputy managing director. The revised forecast could come as soon as Tuesday.

"The recovery is stronger than initially forecast," Portugal, a former deputy finance minister in Brazil, told journalists on the sidelines of a business seminar.

Brazil's economy, the largest in Latin America, should grow more than the global average, Portugal said without giving detailed forecasts.

Economists in a weekly central bank survey released on Monday increased their forecast for gross domestic product growth in Brazil to 4.5 percent in 2010 from 4.2 percent a week earlier.

(Reporting by Roberto Samora, Writing by Elzio Barreto; Editing by Kenneth Barry)