Michel Temer Admits He May Reduce the Inflation Target Beginning in 2019

04/11/2017 - 20h59

President Michel Temer admitted on Monday (the 10th) that his economic team is assessing the possibility of reducing the inflation target beginning in 2019.

Brazil's Central Bank has maintained the target at 4.5% since 2005.

The president brought this information forward in an official statement. According to his press office, he has been accompanying lower inflation projections for 2017 and 2018.

"This favorable scenario led the President's economic team to state that the July meeting of the CMN (National Monetary Committee) will assess the possibility of changing the inflation target in 2019", the press office stated.

The statement was issued after an interview that the president conceded to Folha last Friday (the 7th) where he said that the government would most likely alter its inflation target in response to lower inflation. "By the end of the year, it [inflation] will be lower than 4%. It is possible we will be in a position to change the inflation target", he said.

Henrique Meirelles, Temer's finance minister, had already stated that by 2018 the government may already be in a position to reevaluate the inflation target.

This is in accordance with *Folha*'s "Painel" column which stated earlier that Meirelles was considering reducing the inflation target from 4.5% to 4.25% in 2018, and bringing it down to 4% in 2019.

The target also includes margins which were set at a 3% minimum and a6% maximum for 2017 and 2018 alike.

Translated by THOMAS MATHEWSON

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