by Bernardo Caram
BRASÍLIA (Reuters) – The National Monetary Council (CMN) on Thursday set the IPCA inflation target for 2025 at 3.00%, with a tolerance margin of 1.50 percentage points upwards or downwards.
The Council’s resolution did not provide for a change to the targets of 3.50% for 2022, 3.25% for 2023 and 3.00% for 2024, also with a 1.50 point margin, even with the projection for this year pointing to failure to meet the objective.
The collegiate is chaired by the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, and also composed by the president of the Central Bank, Roberto Campos, and by the special secretary of Treasury and Budget of the Ministry of Economy, Esteves Colnago.
In March, the president of the Central Bank president, Roberto Campos Neto, said that a change in the inflation target to accommodate pressures generated by recent shocks in the economy would have “little to gain” in terms of credibility. He returned to make the same assessment in an interview this Thursday.
In recent years, the Monetary Council has implemented a gradual reduction in the inflation target. The target started from 4.5% in 2018, falling annually by 0.25 percentage point until reaching 3% in 2024, a target repeated now for 2025.
With shocks caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and, more recently, the war in Ukraine, inflation got out of the hands of the Central Bank.
The index closed 2021 at 10.06%, well above the ceiling of 5.25%, and the burst should be repeated this year, when the latest BC projections point to an IPCA of 8.8%. Even for 2023, the Central Bank is already signaling that it will try to bring inflation to a level around the target, not exactly above the target.
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