BRASILIA - The Brazilian government said on Monday it raised the internal rate of return on future railway concessions, in a bid to attract more private investment to an economy heading to its longest recession in more than 80 years. The government hiked the rate of return on railways to 10.6 percent from a previous 8.5 percent, the finance ministry said in a statement. Back in July the government raised the return on airport, highway and port concessions after criticism that authorities were scaring off investors with below-market rates of return. President Dilma Rousseff has put her hopes on a $50 billion program to sell off airports, roads, ports and railways in coming years to jump start the weakening economy. Analysts say, however, that concerns about the future of Brazilian economy could complicate the government plans to sell off infrastructure concessions in Latin America’s largest country. The Brazilian economy is expected to contract more than 3 percent this year and 2 percent in 2016, according to a weekly central bank poll of analysts. Brazil expects to attract $17.5 billion in investment to build 7,537 km of railways across the country. The government has said it could auction three railway projects as early as next year. The projects includes the construction of the railway connecting grain export cities Anapolis and Palmas in the center of the country to ports in the northeast.