Brazil president has 'total confidence' in finance minister - paper

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil's President Michel Temer, under heavy criticism for his economic policies, on Sunday told a Brazilian newspaper that he has "total confidence" in Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles. In a brief interview posted online by the newspaper Estado de S. Paulo, Temer said that Meirelles, currently charged with pulling Latin America's largest economy out of recession, "has my total support." The comments, confirmed Sunday by the presidential palace, follow a week in which data showed that Brazil's economy contracted for the seventh consecutive quarter, prompting economists to trim forecasts for next year and leading many investors to sell Brazilian assets. Whereas many economists once expected growth of about 1.5 percent for 2017, many have now revised their 2017 forecasts below 1 percent, with few ruling out the possibility of a third year of recession. Meirelles, a former central bank president who has focused recovery efforts on a medium-term strategy to balance public finances and overhaul a bloated public sector, has been criticized by some for not pursuing more immediate tactics to promote growth. The minister and Temer also came under fire last week after reaching a deal with cash-strapped Brazilian states to relax austerity measures that previously had been agreed to as a condition for receiving federal financial support. (Reporting by Paulo Prada and Marcela Ayres; Editing by Alan Crosby)