Brazil Central Bank president says inflation still climbing

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – He noted that only Brazil and Russia’s current interest rates are above the neutral level, which supports the economy at full employment without pressuring or decelerating inflation.

A higher than neutral level is necessary to cool inflationary pressures and bring prices closer to Central Bank targets, Campos Neto said.

The Brazilian Central Bank has raised the SELIC to 10.75% from a record low of 2% in March last year, and indicated further adjustments to curb inflation that hit 10.4% in the 12 months through January.

Despite rising borrowing costs, Campos Neto said he believed analysts forecasting low growth for Brazil this year will adjust their numbers upwards due to recent domestic data.

He added that the most crucial point for the Central Bank today is to understand how the normalization of monetary policy will take place in an environment of higher global inflation, in which energy inflation “seems more persistent.”

He stressed that the Central Bank was looking to analyze what effect this, along with China’s slowdown, would have on emerging markets.