The interrelation between public debt and monetary policy in Brazil: a historical review

Abstract This paper aims to discuss the connection between monetary policy and public debt in Brazil, highlighting the consequences. To do so, it begins with a historical resumption of the emergence of the market for public debt and the institutions responsible for its management. This is followed by an analysis of the data on the variables related to monetary policy and public debt between 1999 and 2016. From this analysis, we observed the existence of a problematic connection between two policies - monetary and fiscal - given by the Selic rate, which is both an instrument to control the inflation and the rate that remunerates a significant portion of public debt. The paper concludes that this link reduces the effectiveness of these policies, requiring actions such as the untying of monetary policy and public debt, the increase in the term and duration of debt, the change in composition and, particularly, a reduction of the Selic rate.