Brasília, 1/28/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The Central Bank has released a note to the press explaining that politics was not involved in the decision last week by the Monetary Policy Committee (Copom) to raise the country's basic interest rate (Selic) from 25% to 25.5%.

According to the note, the Copom decision was based exclusively on technical reasons.

The note was issued in response to an article in the Folha de São Paulo, which said that Central Bank president Henrique Meirelles told president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that the Selic had to be raised "or inflation could go out of control," after Lula initially balked at raising the interest rate. (AB)