EMERGING MARKETS-Chilean peso cheers hawkish central bank minutes

* August 75-bps hike was unanimous decision -Chile cenbank minutes * Brazil's Bradespar soars 7.3% * Colombian government signs tax reform bill into law * Argentine inflation rise by the least in a year By Susan Mathew Sept 15 (Reuters) - Hawkish central bank minutes helped push Chile's peso into the black on Wednesday, while Bradespar , one of the biggest shareholders of Brazilian miner Vale, surged on a plan to distribute almost $1 billion in Vale shares. The Chilean currency rose 0.2%, extending gains to a fourth straight session. Lifting the currency were rising copper prices as well as central bank minutes that showed a 75-basis-point hike in the key interest rate last month was a unanimous decision as the economy recovered strongly from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. "The (central bank's) Board reiterated the message to bring the rate to neutral by the first half of 2022, which translates into 50 to 75bp hikes over several meetings," strategists at Citi said in a note to clients. "Markets are already pricing 275bp in hikes over the next 12 months," they said. Most other Latin American currencies made lackluster moves, although some erased session losses as the dollar weakened, with all eyes on next week's U.S. Federal Reserve policy decision. Colombia's currency trended lower. The government on Tuesday signed a heavily revised tax reform bill into law. Citi strategists said the law will help stabilize debt levels but not reduce it considerably. "For debt convergence, a new tax reform is necessary in the next administration. Meanwhile, the current bill limits the next administration's fiscal space ... as part of the new fiscal rule ..." Brazil's real was flat. A central bank survey showed Brazil's economic activity rose in July more than expected. The real is down about 2% so far this month, underperforming regional peers as well as a broad index of emerging market currencies, as political tensions rise. Meanwhile, losses on Sao Paulo's main equity index were capped by a 7.3% jump in holding company Bradespar SA after it announced its plan for distributing shares of Vale SA. Bradespar, owns a 5.73% stake in Vale, worth 27.6 billion reais based on Tuesday's closing price, and after the distribution its stake will be 3.23%. Airline Gol shares rose 4.6% after announcing an exclusive code-share agreement with American Airlines, under which it will receive a $200 million equity investment. In Argentina, data on Tuesday showed inflation rose 2.5% in August, the least in over a year, but the annual rate still stands at 51.4%. Analysts at Credit Suisse expect inflation to end the year at 50%. Argentina's draft budget, expected to be unveiled this week, would include plans for economic growth of between 3% and 4% in 2022, a government source told Reuters on Tuesday, slightly lower than targets the government had previously flagged. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1420 GMT: Stock indexes Latest Daily % change MSCI Emerging Markets 1288.58 -0.58 MSCI LatAm 2406.35 -0.4 Brazil Bovespa 115685.68 -0.43 Mexico IPC 51967.93 0.29 Chile IPSA 4433.61 0.55 Argentina MerVal - - Colombia COLCAP 1318.83 0.66 Currencies Latest Daily % change Brazil real 5.2552 0.06 Mexico peso 19.8968 0.03 Chile peso 781.7 0.22 Colombia peso 3829.53 -0.04 Peru sol 4.099 -0.11 Argentina peso 98.2400 -0.02 (interbank) (Reporting by Susan Mathew in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Oatis)