Brazil 4.5% Inflation a Priority for Rousseff: Daily

By William Jones, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Research by the Brazilian Central Bank disclosed to the market on Monday showed an inflation expectation of just over six percent in 2014. President Dilma Rousseff responded to the figure by claiming that she and her government are striving daily to try and contain the country’s high inflation rate.

The Brazilian government’s current inflation target stands at 4.5 percent, however, in the past two years the figure has hovered above the desired target from 5.84 percent in 2012 to 5.91 percent at the close of 2013. Furthermore, monthly inflation swelled to its highest rate in December last year, the biggest jump in that figure since 2003.

“We are making a big effort to make inflation converge to the midpoint of the target,” Rousseff said in a radio interview in Minas Gerais. “This is an important issue. The closer Brazil is to the center of the target, the more stable the country becomes.”

Dilma Rouseff also promised that her pledge to continue to struggle to stop inflation from spiraling higher was by no means an electioneering policy as she prepares for a re-election campaign at the end of this year. Instead, she promised to maintain and improve the government’s approach.

“My government does not only do this in an election year, it does it throughout the year. Since 2011 we are there, fighting and struggling everyday for strong economic fundamentals and to ensure investment in social policies. This is the challenge facing the government, it is not because of elections.”

In the frank radio interview, Brazil’s president also revealed her willingness to see states and municipalities help support the country’s economy by saving money to pay interest on the public debt. “We really want the state and local governments participate in this effort of fiscal robustness, which is important for the country. I also wanted to alert them to the fact that making efforts towards tax must be part of the states’ and municipalities’ agenda.”

Read more (in Portuguese).

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