Falling U.S. rates and confidence that inflation will fall to established targets this year prompted Brazil's central bank to cut interest rates for the second month running on Jan. 17, according to the minutes of the bank's policy meeting released Jan. 25. At the Jan. 17 meeting of the bank's rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee (Copom), the key Selic lending rate in Latin America's largest economy was cut by 50 basis points to 15.25 percent.

"Analysis of the local and external macroeconomic