For a long time, Brazil’s interest rates were among the highest in the world. Besides damaging public accounts and imposing a severe fiscal sacrifice on the country, the abnormally high level of the Selic rate (the Brazilian overnight interbank rate) inhibited the “animal spirits” of entrepreneurship, distorted resource allocation, and impeded the development of the real-estate and capital markets, while causing currency appreciation.
长期以来，巴西利率都是世界最高水平之一。除了恶化政府财政状况、给国家造成重大财政损失，反常高的基准利率（巴西隔夜银行间利率）还阻止了企业家的“动物精神”，扭曲了资源配置，阻碍了房地产和资本市场发展，并造成了货币升值。