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Brazil lowers interest rate to 12.25 percent

Xinhua, February 23, 2017 Adjust font size:

Brazil's central bank announced on Wednesday evening its decision to cut the country's annual basic interest rate Selic from 13 percent to 12.25 percent.

The decision by the bank's Monetary Policy Committee (Copom) drove the Selic rate to the lowest level since early 2015, when it was at 11.75 percent.

It was the fourth consecutive cut in the Selic rate since October 2016.In January, the committee cut the Selic rate from 13.75 percent to 13 percent.

The latest rate cut was expected by financial market analysts in Brazil. Earlier this week, a poll carried out among financial market executives showed that most of them believed the Copom would announce a 0.75-point cut.

The executives also expected the committee to further cut the rate this year, possibly to 9.5 percent by the end of the year.

In a statement, the Copom justified its decision, saying there were signs that Brazil's economy was stabilizing and the inflation rate was converging to its 4.5-percent target for this year.

It believed that the scenario was compatible with the hypothesis of a 9.5-percent Selic rate by the end of 2017. Endi