Rousseff Says Brazil Power Cost Cuts to Be Bigger, Sooner

Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Brazil will lower energy costs this year by more than the government initially announced and move up the date that the cuts go into effect in an effort to rein in consumer prices that have remained above the central bank’s target since August 2010.

“Beyond anticipating the enforcement of the new rates, the cut is bigger than previously announced,” President Dilma Rousseff said in a nationally-televised address today.

The cuts that go into effect tomorrow rather than early next month call for lowering consumer power costs by 18 percent and those for industry by 32 percent compared to the reductions of 16.2 percent and 28 percent announced by the president in September.

--Editor: Robert Jameson