Brazil will probably reduce interest rates this week for the first time in four years, in what is set to be the beginning of a long and deep series of rate cuts expected to help the economy emerge from a two-year-long recession.
Forty-six of 50 economists polled by Reuters expect the central bank to cut its benchmark Selic rate from a decade-high of 14.25 percent BRCBMP=ECI on Oct. 19, and only four see the bank keeping rates steady for a tenth straight meeting.
The analysts that expect a move are split about the size of the cut. Half of them expect the bank’s policy committee, Copom, to trim the Selic rate by 25 basis points, to 14.00 percent, and the remainder forecast a cut of 50 basis points, to 13.75 percent.
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