The question of whether a policy that leads to low inflation can hamper real economic activity and growth is a recurrent one in Brazil. In this essay we used yearly data to study the behavior of Brazilian inflation and GDP from 1850 to 2000. We used econometric and business cycles techniques to study the behavior of these variables in time and frequency domains. The results suggest the absence of positive comovement between the series. Thus, the empirical evidence apparently implies that the option of easing up on inflation to avoid a slowdown in real economic activity and growth is not available to Brazilian policy makers.
inflation; growth; business cycles