BRASIL: 8 April UPDATE: Real Breaks $1.60 Barrier; Mantega's Foreign Tax Extension Seen As Futile; Consumer Loan Tax Doubled.

BLOOMBERG/

    The government has doubled the tax on consumer loans...excluding mortgages. They will now be subject to a 3% annual tax.
     The government wants to slow credit growth to between 12%-15% annually.
    Meanwhile the REAL now registers at $1.5731 usd... for the first time since 2008...continuing to zoom past the psychologically important $1.60 level...even after FM Guido Mantega (pictured) announced the extension of a 6% tax on foreign loans.
    Mantega now calls long-term appreciation “inevitable."
    March inflation there also hit a new high of  6.3%...the most in 28 months,
   “Mantega announced a measure that has zero impact,” said economist Daniel Ribeiro.
   “All the measures we’ve taken have produced results,” Mantega said, adding that the real could be as high as 1.50 per usd withouot the currency curbs. “If we hadn’t acted, then certainly the real would be much more highly valued than it is now.”
     But many analysts now speculate that the REAL will trade between $1.50-1.60 usd... in 2011.