The Brazilian real lost ground Thursday after the head of the nation’s central bank said measures aimed at reducing inflationary pressures appear to be working. “The recent results ... are very promising. We will see monthly inflation all coming down,” with the peak expected to be reached by August, said Alexandre Tombini, governor of the Central Bank of Brazil, in a conference call with reporters and analysts on Thursday. The central bank has pushed the benchmark interest rate higher by 3.25 percentage points, to 12%, since April 2010.