Jonathan Wheatley – Financial Times, 09/10/2012
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Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the biggest quantitative easer of all? Brazil has long accused governments in the developed world of using loose monetary policy to pump up their economies and get a competitive edge. But it may be time for Brazil to reflect on its own actions over the past five years.
During that time, Brazil has received huge capital inflows, pushing its foreign reserves from about $80bn at the end of 2006 to about $380bn today (see chart below). The central bank says it has “sterilised” those potentially expansionary and inflationary inflows by selling government bonds – standard practice at central banks around the world.
