Brazil's central bank on Wednesday chose to keep interest rates unchanged, pausing an aggressive monetary tightening cycle even as U.S. and European policymakers are still racing to catch up with inflation. The bank's rate-setting committee, known as Copom, decided by a vote of 7-to-2 to leave its benchmark Selic interest rate at 13.75% after 12 consecutive increases, as expected by 24 of 32 economists polled by Reuters. With that, policymakers likely ended what had been the world's most aggressive rate-hiking cycle, lifting the Selic rate from a record-low 2% in March 2021 and putting Brazil ahead of many central banks that only started raising rates recently.