Brazil's benchmark Selic interest rate has been raised from 12.25 to 12.5 percent, the central bank said Wednesday.
It was the fifth consecutive increase in the Selic rate, which had been expected by the market.
With the rise, the Selic reached its highest level since January 2009, when the country was the grip of the global financial crisis.
According to the Monetary Policy Committee (Copom) of the central bank, the decision to raise the Selic was unanimous, motivated by concerns of inflationary pressures.
Brazil's inflation has slowed markedly in the past two months, but the accumulated rate reached 3.87 percent in the first six months of this year, compared with 3.09 percent a year earlier.
The rate is close to the central bank's inflation target set for this year, which is 4.5 percent with a two percentage point tolerance, meaning that the rate cannot exceed 6.5 percent.