Central bank of Brazil holds expected inflation at 4.7%

The central bank of Brazil left the forecast for inflation rate unchanged at 4.7% in 2012 even despite decrease in the SELIC overnight rate by 100 basis points since previous inflation forecast. The Copom reported that its models predict the inflation to increase only by 0.1% to 4.8% in case SELIC rate is decreased by 150 basis points to 9.5%. The inflation rate is close to the central bank's target of 4.5%.