This Wednesday, Brazil’s Central Bank bumped the Selic benchmark interest rate by another percentage point, pushing it to 6.25 percent a year. However, there are concerns that this latest move will be unable to tame inflation or stop Brazil from slipping into the worst possible economic scenario: stagflation.
A portmanteau of stagnation and inflation, “stagflation” is feared by economists around the world, being characterized by a sluggish economy in which prices don’t stop rising.
With a combination of political and energy crises, analysts in Brazil believe that, even if the country is not in stagflation yet, it will be...