MONETARY AND EXCHANGE RATE POLICY IN BRAZIL AFTER INFLATION TARGETING

Abstract

After strong currency crisis, in January 1999, Brazil implemented flexible exchange rate regime combined with inflation targeting. Some economists believe that emerging markets do not allow the exchange rate to float as much they had announced and therefore they suffer from the fear of floating. However, in this article there is evidence to believe that central banks in the emerging markets care about inflation ratter than exchange rate. The remarkable result found in this article is that the aggressiveness of the interest rate reaction to inflation explains far more the current monetary and exchange rate policy in Brazil than the idea of the fear of floating.