Rio, 7/8/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - With the announcement yesterday by the Central Bank that its forecast for the Broad Consumer Price Index (IPCA) has fallen from 7% to 6.75%, former minister of Finance, Pedro Malan, says there is a good possibility of consolidating the inflation decline, which would make it possible to reduce interest rates.

Malan went on to say that, in his opinion, that situation already exists, but he did not want to speculate on the next Monetary Policy Committee (Copom) meeting. He concluded by saying that the ideal interest rate would be much lower than the present rate (26% per year), and that consolidation would have to involve two other factors: declining inflation and a floating exchange rate. (AB)