UPDATE 1-Brazil may adopt measures to combat crisis-c.bank

Mon Apr 13, 2009 10:09am EDT
(Adds GDP growth, Meirelles comments)
SAO PAULO, April 13 (Reuters) - Brazil's government may adopt additional measures to counteract the impact of the global financial crisis on the country's economy, Central Bank President Henrique Meirelles said on Monday.
The bank is implementing policies to support the economy and will focus on measures that will allow for lending rates to decline in the future, he said without providing details.
"It's important to guarantee the economy has lower interest interest rates in the future, so that it will allow for sustainable growth without the imbalances of the past," Meirelles told business executives in Sao Paulo.
Brazil, Latin America's largest economy, should recover from the global crisis faster than other countries, Meirelles said, reiterating comments he has made in recent weeks.
The country was one of last to be dragged into the crisis, with the economy surging at an annual rate of 9.3 percent up until the third quarter of 2008, which was one of the reasons the central bank was late in cutting borrowing costs, Meirelles said. Policy makers started cutting rates in January but have been criticized for not being aggressive enough.
"We may aspire to have lower rates in the future ... but an economy that has this type of demand growth isn't an economy with an excessively conservative central bank," Meirelles said, flanked by the head of the Sao Paulo industry federation that has been one of the biggest critics of Brazil's interest rate.
The bank has slashed its benchmark Selic lending rate by 250 basis points to 11.25 percent and analysts expect borrowing costs to drop to single digits by in the coming months. (Reporting by Daniela Machado; Writing by Elzio Barreto)