(For other news from the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit, click on http://www.reuters.com/summit/LatinAmericanInvestment09?PID=500)
* Brazil will not tap sovereign wealth fund in 2009
* Brazil growth could fall short of 2 pct gov't forecast
* Gov't ready to supply extra financing for 2009 harvest (Adds export financing plan)
By Ana Nicolaci da Costa
BRASILIA, May 6 (Reuters) - Brazil will not tap a new sovereign wealth fund for key investment projects this year even though the economy may miss an official 2 percent growth forecast, Planning Minister Paulo Bernardo said on Wednesday.
"It is more likely that we use (the sovereign wealth fund) next year but we still haven't defined this. This year we will not use it," Bernardo told the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit in Brasilia, Brazil's capital.
The fund was created last year and was originally aimed to help finance the expansion of Brazilian companies abroad.
Bernardo acknowledged that Latin America's largest economy could fall short of the government's forecast for 2 percent growth in 2009. Still, he expected the economy keep growing and avoid some market predictions it could contract 0.3 percent.
Until the third quarter of last year Brazil had enjoyed sustained growth of more than 5 percent a year.
The government had no plans for further tax cuts, Bernardo said, after a series of reductions to help boost consumer demand for cars and other durable goods in recent months.
"We have to be careful when foregoing revenues at a time when tax collection is so far below expectations," Bernardo added.
Falling tax receipts as the economy cools pushed the government to reduce the primary budget surplus target in April to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product from a previous target of 3.8 percent of GDP. The figure excludes interest payments.
Government tax revenues fell 16 percent during the first two months of the year and by a further 9 percent in March, compared to the same periods last year.
The annual financing program that covers much of Brazil's huge agricultural output would be announced in the second half of June and the government said it was prepared to step in with loans as trading houses struggle to get financing to buy produce.
"We won't leave the productive sector without credit, but we also are not going to dash out money that is not necessary," Bernardo said.
Brazil is one of the world's largest commodity and farm product exporters.
The government was seeking funding for a 30 billion reais ($14.2 billion) export financing package to South America aimed at boosting trade in the region, Bernardo said, without giving additional details. ($1=2.112 reais) (For summit blog: http://blogs.reuters.com/summits/)) (For more on the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit, see [ID:nN04411631]) (Reporting by Ana Nicolaci da Costa; Additional Reporting by Isabel Versiani and Natuza Nery in Brasilia and Daniela Machado and Alexandre Caverni in Sao Paulo; Editing by Raymond Colitt)