“There is no proposal for a single currency, go find out”, says Haddad to a reporter

Two days after the news that Brazil and neighboring countries were discussing the possibility of creating a single currency for Mercosur, the new Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, told journalists that there is no such proposal.

“There is no single currency, there is no such proposal. You will find out first”, said the minister, irritated, when quickly answering the question posed by a reporter on the way out of the inauguration event of Simone Tebet at the Ministry of Planning, where the emedebist will work alongside Haddad.

On Tuesday (3), after a meeting with the Brazilian Minister of Finance in Brasília, the Argentine ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Scioli, stated that both discussed the creation of a common currency for the South American bloc.

The objective, according to Scioli, is to strengthen the trade bloc and expand ties between countries in the region. For him, the idea is not to create a single currency like the euro — the official currency of the member countries of the European Union —, but rather one for the bloc.

“About the common currency, we will work. It does not mean that each country does not have its own currency, it means a unit for integration and increased commercial exchange throughout this regional bloc”, said the ambassador.

“And, as President Lula said, strengthening Mercosur, expanding Latin American union, is very important,” he added.

Both President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and former Economy Minister Paulo Guedes have already defended the implementation of a “single currency” for Latin American countries.

For experts heard by CNN however, the idea comes up against the difficulties of the different realities of each country, which involves different monetary policy mechanisms and also the lack of controlling bodies.

*With Diego Mendes