The Inflation Targeting System and Brazilian Macroeconomic Dynamics

This work is the result of a dissertation in Economics from the Postgraduate Program in Economics at the State University of Maringá. Under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Joaquim Miguel Couto. The aim of this study was to study the inflation targeting system and its adoption by Brazil from 1999 onwards as well as the results achieved up to 2009. In addition the study also sought to analyze the dichotomy that the inflation targeting regime presents in terms of its relatively good performance in terms of price level control and its difficulty in reconciling this positive result on real macroeconomic variables namely: gross domestic product unemployment and public debt. The analysis showed that the targets were met in seven of the ten years the regime was in force (1999-2009). This result shows that the target regime was successful in its ultimate goal of controlling inflation. However this result proved to be contradictory to the real performance of the economy given that the national product maintained its stop-and-go trajectory.