Planning and Budget Minister Simone Tippett said on Wednesday (12) that she believes the central bank is able to cut interest rates by January next year and sees inflation falling to the mid-target in 2026.
“I’m sure that the central bank, from now on, has all the conditions to expect interest rates to fall in Brazil. I think it could be at the next meeting, if not at the next meeting, in January next year,” she said in an interview with CNN Brasil, where she also pointed to improving economic indicators that justify easing monetary policy.
In response to a question about the possibility of reaching the middle of the 3% inflation target in 2026, Tippett said that the economic team believes that is possible and has already begun to see signs of this from financial markets and the Bank of Colombia itself.
“Next year’s inflation will definitely be lower than this year.”
Regarding the financial results, the Minister ruled out making changes to the 2026 fiscal target, which currently stands at a surplus of 0.25% of GDP, with a tolerance of 0.25 percentage points more or less, to make compliance more workable, arguing that frequent changes undermine the credibility of the target sought by the government.
The current financial rules are not sufficient to provide the sustainability of public debt, but they are a good basis for ensuring its stability, according to her opinion, which confirmed that the government is capable of achieving the financial goal in 2026.
“We have to achieve the financial goal and we cannot change this goal. We have to create a surplus from next year onward,” he said. “We will meet the target next year with a surplus.”
Tippett also said that a measure that could improve the government’s overall accounts scenario is to increase the tax rate on bets. She stated that if approved, this increase should give the economic team the strength to comply with mandatory and discretionary expenditures and increase revenues to ensure that it will not be necessary to change the 2026 fiscal target.
Senator Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL) last week introduced a bill proposing to double the prices charged on online betting platforms from 12% to 24%.
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