Brasília – The president of the Brazilian Central Bank (BC), Alexandre Tombini, said this Tuesday (22) that the BC “will not shy away” of taking measures to make the inflation rate converge to the center of the target in 2017, which is set at 4.5% by the Extended National Consumer Price Index (IPCA).
“Regarding the external sector, we closed 2015 with a significant reduction of more than 40% in the deficit of current transactions of the balance of payments, from USD 104 billion in 2014 to USD 58.5 billion in 2015. At the end of last January, this deficit, year-on-year, had slid down to USD 51.6 billion and our most recent assessments signal to figures below USD 30 billion at the end of 2016”, he said, speaking on external accounts.
According to Tombini, who took part in a hearing at the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Commission to talk about the government’s monetary policy, when facing the domestic and international scenarios, the “balance of risks is challenging”, but that the BC is aware of the situation. About external turbulences, Alexandre Tombini emphasized that the BC is capitalized and independent of external resources.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
