Lula says he was happy with a letter from economists and that he knows how to listen to advice

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At a press conference in Lisbon, president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) commented on the letter published in Sheet by economists Arminio Fraga, Edmar Bacha and Pedro Malan addressed to him. Lula said he knows how to listen to advice and repeated that he already complied with fiscal responsibility rules when he was in government.

“I still haven’t read the letter, but I was happy to hear about a letter from important people alerting me to economic problems and giving suggestions. I know how to listen to advice and, if it makes sense, follow it”, stated the president-elect. The message was also published in a Twitter post.

Alongside the Prime Minister of Portugal, Antonio Costa, Lula repeated that he acted responsibly when he was president, and that he managed to lower inflation, unemployment and the percentage of the country’s internal debt.

“I get upset sometimes when I see signs of ‘look, what’s the fiscal policy?’ No one has the authority to talk about fiscal policy with me, because during my entire period in government I was the only G20 country that had a primary surplus during the 8 years of my term,” he said.

“I learned from my mother, who was illiterate, that we can only spend the money we have or earn. the country to grow again”, completed the president-elect.

In a text published on Thursday, entitled “Will the stock market fall? Increase the dollar? Patience?”, economists questioned the president about statements related to recent market reactions, in the wake of discussions by the transition team on fiscal policy during COP27 .

In a speech given at the conference in Egypt, Lula defended breaking the spending ceiling as a “social responsibility” in order to be able to finance social programs.

“If I say that, will the stock market fall, will the dollar rise? Patience”, said Lula, adding that the fluctuation of indices does not happen “because of serious people, but because of speculators who are speculating every single day”.

In his speech this Friday, the president-elect once again addressed investors’ negative reaction to the signals regarding fiscal policy. The Ibovespa index of the Brazilian Stock Exchange accumulated a drop of 3% in the week.

“I’m going to raise the minimum wage every year again, I’m going to generate jobs in this country again, and we’re going to go back to being responsible from the fiscal point of view, without having to meet everything the financial system wants,” Lula said.

“There is no reason for this fear, there is no reason for this stock market fluctuation, it is important that we just be careful not to be a victim of speculation”.

In the letter in response to the president, the economists say that “the dollar’s rise and the stock market’s fall are not the product of the action of a group of malicious speculators. Fiscal responsibility is not an obstacle to the noble yearning for social responsibility, to now or as soon as possible.”

“It is necessary to understand that interest rates, the dollar and the stock exchange are the product of everyone’s actions in the economy, inside and outside Brazil, above all the government itself. A lot of serious and hardworking people, president”, say the economists in the document .

In recent days, a feeling of search for protection has been observed in the markets, with a drop in the stock exchange and an increase in the dollar and future interest rates, with fearful investors already betting that new increases in the Selic rate will be necessary by the Central Bank (BC) to control the future inflation.

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