[crdoconnor]

The essence of the trick was convincing people that the money that they received wasn't going to suddenly become worthless, so they wouldn't go out and spend it immediately, perpetuating the inflation - killing off the vicious cycle.

i.e. it was a hack to reduce the velocity of money in Brazil.

In all likelihood inflation would have come down anyway at some point around that time. Energy prices had stopped rising. Perhaps this made it happen a few months or even a year earlier, though.

If they'd tried this trick in the beginning, while energy prices were still rising it would have done fuck all.