BRASILIA, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The government of Brazil lowered its prediction for 2018 GDP growth from 2.97 percent to 2.5 percent, the Ministry of Planning announced on Tuesday.

This revision to GDP growth was predicted last week by the government's chief of staff Eliseo Padilha.

The reduction reflects a number of indicators which point to a slower economic recovery than hoped for.

Last week, the central bank's Index of Economic Activity (IBC-Br) said that GDP contracted by 0.13 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2018.

While the IBC-Br is a preliminary finding, the official GDP figures for Q1 will be revealed on May 30 by the country's statistics bureau, IBGE.

The IBGE announced in early May that the production levels of Brazilian industry had ended the first term stalled compared to last year.

Financial market analysts also lowered their GDP growth prediction from 2.71 percent to 2.51 percent last week.

In 2017, the Brazilian economy grew by 1 percent of GDP, ending a bitter two-year recessive cycle.