President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva once again criticized the president of the Central Bank, Roberto Campos Neto, and high interest rates in an interview last Thursday night (2) with Reinaldo Azevedo, from BandNews.
“Why does this citizen who was not elected for anything think he has the power to decide things?” said Lula.
“And he even says that ‘he’s going to think about how I can help Brazil’. No, you don’t have to think about how to help Brazil, you have to think about how to reduce interest rates. For the country to have credit again, for the economy to function again. This is not my bravado, because I have no interest in fighting with the president of the Central Bank. But this country cannot be hostage to a single man.
Lula also once again questioned the autonomy of the BC, which was reinforced by a series of rule changes made by law in 2021 that reduced the possibility of interference by the Planalto over the Central Bank.
“I was president for eight years, the [Henrique] Meirelles was the president of the Central Bank and he had autonomy, but he had responsibility”, he said.
“His responsibility was to know that this country has a person elected to preside over the country. And even then, that person has no autonomy. I have to be accountable to the National Congress, to the TCU, to society, to the media. But why does this citizen who was not elected for anything think he has the power to decide things?”
As in several other moments since he assumed the presidency, Lula also criticized the Selic level, the country’s basic interest rate, and defended its reduction.
“What is the explanation for having interest rates at 13.75% in a country where the economy is not growing?”, he said, citing the 2022 GDP results released earlier.
The Brazilian economy grew 2.9% in the year, but dropped 0.2% from the third to the fourth quarter.
“The economy is not growing, informal employment with workers earning very poorly, credit is scarce. I just wanted an explanation of why interest rates are at 13.75%.”
Source: CNN Brasil
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