A final issue is the transparency of the IT framework. As part of the initial setting, an
effective communication process was established so that the population will be able to
understand and monitor the decisions of the Central Bank and to know the reasons why
forecasted and accumulated inflation may be deviating from target.
The Copom meets at regular monthly intervals and decisions are taken by majority vote.
The decisions are announced immediately after the meeting ends, sometimes followed by a press
release explaining briefly the reasons why the decisions were taken. In the second half of 1999,
the Copom minutes were published 2 weeks after the meetings. In the beginning of 2000, this
interval has been reduced to only one week.
Finally, there is a quarterly inflation report discussing the main issues related to the
performance of the inflation-targeting regime.7
It includes detailed explanations of the results
delivered by past decisions and a prospective analysis for future inflation, with special emphasis
on the assumptions made in the forecasting process that generated the monetary instrument
decisions. Minutes of the previous Monetary Policy Committee meetings are republished in the
report