Monetary policy was used in conjunction with fiscal policy and supported with various forms of direct control to pump up demand, when the economy declined and unemployment rose, until inflation and the balance of payments threatened to get out of hand, at which point all the policy levers were thrown into reverse. It was a recipe for short-termism throughout our economies. We gradually learned from experience - perhaps more slowly in this country than some others - that there is no trade-off between growth and stability in the medium and longer term, and that, in managing demand - which of course we continue to do - we needed to pay far more attention to the underlying, supply-side, capacity of the economy to meet that demand. We came to recognise that direct controls merely addressed the symptoms of instability rather than its causes. We realised increasingly that fiscal policy was not well suited to the task of short-term demand management, and needed to be constrained within prudent limits if debt levels were to be sustainable in the medium- and longer-term. And this left a more distinctive and clearly defined role for monetary policy as the primary instrument for maintaining broad balance consistently over time between aggregate demand and underlying supply. All this has become the accepted wisdom just about everywhere. "Stability is a necessary condition for sustainable growth" has become the universal central-banking credo - though that doesn't necessarily make it any easier to achieve!
Last year, due to a confidence crisis and doubts on the Brazilian public debt and the Brazilian economy the exchange rate depreciated strongly and, as a result, we have observed an increase in the current inflation rate and a contamination of future inflation expectations. The conduct of monetary policy will have as strategic priority the avoidance of this transitory hike in inflation being perceived as permanent. We will fight, unrelentlessly, against the expectation of an increase in the level of inflation and the indexation of the economy. The goal is to bring inflation back to the trajectory defined in the targets already set by the National Monetary Council (CMN). The Central Bank will pursue a path of convergence to the already defined inflation targets, taking into account that this convergence will not occur instantaneously. It is a common practice among Central Banks in the world to dilute the convergence of inflation to the targets over a period longer than a year. This is particularly important when an inflationary bubble arises due to a supply shock, as has been the case in Brazil. Therefore, we will proceed by aiming at an inflation rate that takes into account the inertia inherited from inflation in 2002, and the supply shocks stemming from the increase in administered and monitored prices in 2003. Therefore, monetary policy will maintain the goal of ensuring that inflation will return to its target path within a time period that does not result in unnecessary costs to the economy. Transparency in the process is essential.