A successful response to crisis
Summing up briefly, the policy response to the crisis entailed a combination of tighter fiscal policy, tighter monetary policy with an inflation target, and external financial support. Results have, so far, been surprisingly positive. The exchange rate stabilized and fell below 2 reais to the dollar very quickly. Inflation expectations also came down, which allowed us to use the interest-rate bias twice during March 1999; rates were first cut to 42 percent, then to 39� percent. Synthetic on-shore dollar rates fell dramatically, from the teens and even the twenties to mid-single-digit levels not much above international rates. We no longer needed short-term capital other than trade finance to finance the balance of payments.