Brazil held interest rates unchanged for a second straight time this week but did not commit to keeping them stable for long as inflation remains high in Latin America's top economy. The Brazilian economy performance is anemic and next October president Dilma Rousseff is bidding for re-election.
Uruguay's Central bank confirmed that inflation remains the leading challenge and ratified the current monetary contractive policy with the M1 money supply index converging to 8% from its current 10.4%, in a 'not too distant horizon'.
Brazil left its benchmark interest rate unchanged on Wednesday. In a unanimous decision, the central bank's monetary policy committee, Copom, kept the Selic rate at 11%, breaking a streak of nine consecutive hikes as expected by a majority of analysts and market traders.
Brazil's central bank raised its benchmark Selic rate to 11% from 10.75% on Wednesday, prolonging its tightening cycle after a surge in food prices that has stoked already high inflation in an election year. The bank's decision was unanimous and left the door open for possible further rate hikes.