Rio,6/18/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABR) - The vice president of the Commercial Association of Rio de Janeiro, Walter Machado, says that the state commerce sector is awaiting the results of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting in Brasilia with optimism.

Machado said the ideal would be to lower interest rates by 1.5 percentage points [at the moment the Selic is at 26.5%], but that a reduction of 1 percentage point would be a good sign that further reductions could occur in the future. "The commerce sector needs credit and the fact is that interest rates must come down immediately," said Machado. (AB)