SAO PAULO: Inflation rates in Brazil will stay high through most of the year but will slow toward year-end, the central bank said on Thursday in meeting minutes that left the door open for a range of policy tightening measures.
While the outlook for consumer prices hasn't evolved favorably since the bank's January meeting, strong momentum from prices in 2010 have played a role, policy-makers said.
The bank also stressed the role of other policies in holding back price pressures, including so-called macroprudential measures such as higher bank reserve requirements and the $30 billion budget cut the government has promised.
Nevertheless, the policy-makers said, it is specifically monetary policy's job to prevent short-term price pressures from becoming long-term.
"The monetary policy committee recognizes an economic environment with more than usual uncertainty, and sees higher risks for getting inflation to the center of the target," Brazil's central bank said.
Yields on Brazilian interest rate futures contracts fell sharply after the minutes were published as some investors bet that the pace of future interest rate hikes would be more measured than they previously expected.
The bank is targeting an inflation rate of 4.5 percent plus or minus 2 percentage points this year.
Policy-makers hiked their benchmark Selic rate by 50 basis points to 11.75 percent last week, after a similarly-sized increase in January.
Twelve-month inflation has sped toward the upper end of the target range, with the benchmark index at 6.01 percent in the year through February
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