BRASÍLIA: Brazil's central bank raised its key interest rate to 12.75 percent Wednesday, as Latin America's largest economy fights to keep a lid on inflation despite a slowing economy.
The increase, the fourth in a row, was largely anticipated by analysts polled by the central bank.
"In assessing the macroeconomic scenario and the outlook for inflation, the Copom (the bank's monetary policy committee) decided unanimously to raise the rate by 0.5 percentage points, to 12.75 percent," it said in a statement.
Inflation in 2014 reached 6.41 percent, just below the government's maximum target of 6.5 percent.
Brazil's leftist President Dilma Rousseff, who was re-elected in October, has responded by paring back the budget while promising to protect social programs for the working class.
After several years of booming growth, Brazil's economy has been slowing in recent years and growth looks set to be close to zero for 2014.
Comments
Comments are closed.