28/05/2014
MENAFN – AFP) Brazil’s central bank opted to hold its key interest rate steady at 11 percent, amid ongoing concerns about inflation in South America’s largest economy.
The central bank’s monetary policy commission (Copom) said the decision reflected “macroeconomic trends and the inflation outlook.”
In a long-term process of adjustment begun last April, when the rate stood at 7.25 percent, the rate has been hiked gradually to limit inflation.
Market analysts were expecting the decision to maintain the current rate.
But some still think the rate will rise to 11.25 percent before the end of 2014.
President Dilma Rousseff, who is widely expected to win re-election in October, had pushed for lowering borrowing costs to stimulate domestic consumption and investments.
The government and market analysts say Brazil’s GDP growth in 2013 reached 2.3 percent. This year analysts are banking on two-percent growth.