“If I can’t talk about the interest rate, if I can’t influence to lower the interest rate, and if I can’t talk about employment, then what am I going to talk about?”
The statement by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), given exclusively to CNN yesterday morning, refers to a dialogue with the current president of the Central Bank (BC), Roberto Campos Neto, the target of criticism from the PT government in recent days about the level of the Selic rate and the inflation target.
In his first mandates, in the early 2000s, Lula would talk to — and complain about — Henrique Meirelles, then BC president, every time he raised interest rates.
Without the protection of the law for his autonomy, Meirelles dribbled the president’s protests and continued to decide technically on how to deal with inflation.
In the exclusive interview with the anchor of CNN Daniela Lima, Lula insisted on the diagnosis of heterodox economists who advise him, saying that “there is no demand inflation in the country” — therefore, within this logic, the basic interest rate does not need to rise, nor stay too high.
In this Friday’s episode (17), CNN Money welcomes the former director of economic policy at the BC, Fabio Kanczuk, to understand the nature of Brazilian inflation and how the monetary authority can combat the current inflationary process.
Presented by Thais Heredia, the CNN Money it presents a balance of the news subjects that influence markets, finances and the direction of society and the dynamics of power in Brazil and in the world.
*Posted by Tamara Nassif
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
