Before the Real plan was launched, five major stabilization plans failed to control Brazil's chronic inflationary process. A loose-stance fiscal policy, associated with widespread price indexation and a passive-stance monetary policy, was thought to drive the ever-growing rate of prices as well...

The paper analyzes how an error in inflation expectations helped maintain high interest rates in the wake of the major stabilization plans launched in Brazil over the past 18 years. Newly implemented low-inflation measures lacked credibility and forced agents to expect a higher inflation rate...