In an interview with CNN this Thursday (16), President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) denied the tone of confrontation with the Central Bank and said that it is not up to him to face the institution.
“It is not up to the President of the Republic to fight with the president of the Central Bank,” he told CNN anchor Daniela Lima. “I would even be entitled, because he is not president of the BC nominated by me, he was nominated by Bolsonaro, he was nominated by Guedes, so it means that his political head is a very different head from mine and from those who voted for me. But he is there, he has a mandate ”.
“If he agrees, when I take my government to visit the most miserable places in this country, I’ll take him to see. He has to know that we, in this country, have to govern for the people who need it most,” he said.
Lua also says that, in his view, the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, “has every disposition” to talk to Roberto Campos Neto – something that should be done “every day, every hour”.
“I think Haddad is willing to talk to the BC president. He has already talked several times and will continue to talk. If it is necessary for the President of the Republic to talk to the president of the Central Bank, about something of interest to Brazil, I also have no problem talking to anyone,” said Lula.
“But if I can’t talk to him about interest rates and employment, what am I going to talk about? So it’s important that he talks to Fernando Haddad, every day, every hour, every month, every year, and that he only meets the inflation target, having the notion that the target cannot be the reason why you are obliged to increase the interest rate.”
President Lula and allies have criticized the conduct of monetary policy by the Central Bank and the economy’s basic interest rate, currently at 13.75% per year.
The PT offensive, which has been on the news since the beginning of February, even had repercussions abroad under comparisons with the inflationary crisis in Turkey. With the escalation of tensions, Campos Neto put the heat on in an interview with the program Roda Viva, on TV Cultura, last Monday (13).
“I wanted to start making this record. Central Bank needs to work together with the government, and that I will do everything in my power to bring the Central Bank closer to the government”, said Campos Neto in the interview program.
The debate encouraged by the PT, however, echoed in public opinion. According to a Genial/Quaest poll released last Tuesday, about 76% of Brazilians believe that Lula “is right to try to force a drop in interest rates.”
Asked about it by CNN, Lula said: “It is not up to the President of the Republic to fight with the President of the Central Bank.”
“And I would even be entitled, because he is not the president of the Central Bank appointed by me. He was nominated by Bolsonaro, by Guedes, so it means that his political mind is very different from mine and those who voted for me”, declared the president to anchor Daniela Lima.
“But he is there and he has a mandate. The only thing I want is for him to comply with the law that approved the independence of the Central Bank. He has to take care of inflation, growth, employment.”
*Posted by Tamara Nassif
Source: CNN Brasil
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