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.
During the months that followed, we were able gradually to lengthen the maturities of the government's domestic debt, from six months to about a year. By June 1999, the panic was behind us. At the end of the month, the inflation targets for the rest of 1999 and for the next two years were announced, as planned. A broad-based consumer price index was chosen (the IPCA). The targets are 8 percent for 1999, 6 percent for 2000, and 4 percent for 2001. The targeting mechanism will therefore play a dual role: a permanent one of nominal anchor and a temporary one of disinflation guideline. This is not unlike what has happened in other countries that adopted inflation targeting immediately after letting their currencies float.