LatinNews Daily - 19 March 2026

*The monetary policy committee (Copom) of Brazil’s central bank (BCB) has lowered the country’s benchmark interest rate (Selic) by 25 basis points, bringing it down to 14.75%. This is the first rate cut since May 2024, when the Selic was brought down to 10.5%. The BCB carried out rate hikes from September 2024-July 2025, raising the Selic to 15.0%, its highest level in nearly two decades. While the BCB’s decision to begin lowering the rate suggests a slight loosening of its monetary policy stance, a Copom statement released yesterday was unclear as to whether more rate cuts were on the horizon. The statement highlighted inflationary risks, such as the impact on global supply chains and commodity prices of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, and urged the need for “serenity and caution in the conduct of monetary policy, so that further steps of interest rate calibration could incorporate new information about the depth and extent of the conflicts in the Middle East”.

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