update 10:23Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said on Wednesday that the country’s interest rate, at 10.75% per year, remains very high while inflation is under control, adding that he does not know if the Central Bank will “respect” the guidance given at its last monetary policy meeting on the pace of Selic rate cuts.

“I don’t know what will happen today, there is a discussion about whether to respect the previous statement, which already referred to a 0.5 percentage point cut today, or if there will be some justified alteration,” said Haddad in an interview on the program “Good morning, minister,” of CanalGov.
The comments come at a time of uncertainty in the market about the magnitude of the cut to be announced by the Monetary Policy Committee (Copom) on Wednesday.
At its last meeting in March, the Copom had indicated maintenance of the 0.50 percentage point pace in May, but since then global and domestic uncertainties have led the market to price in a more cautious adjustment of 0.25 p.p.
After the Central Bank president, Roberto Campos Neto, himself stated that the monetary authority is not in a position to provide future guidance in this scenario. (Reuters)