IMF decides to close office in Brazil after ‘dismissal’ of Guedes

The IMF (International Monetary Fund) is going to close its office in Brazil until next year, after minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) expressed that the government no longer needs the organization’s work in the country.

“The IMF has agreed with the Brazilian authorities to close our Representative Office in Brasília by June 30, 2022,” said Joana Pereira, IMF resident representative in Brazil, in a statement.

Pereira says the office was opened during an IMF financial assistance agreement in 1999 and that, although the IMF agreement with Brazil ended in 2005, the office was kept to facilitate dialogue between fund staff and authorities. .

“We hope that the high quality of the Fund’s staff involvement with the Brazilian authorities will continue, as we work to support Brazil in strengthening its economic policy and institutional framework,” he says.

The announcement comes amidst Guedes’ criticism of the institution’s forecasts, which even predicted in the early stages of the pandemic that the Brazilian economy would have a further decline in 2020. Measures such as emergency aid reversed the trend and the minister continues to recall the projections of the IMF on several occasions.

This Wednesday (15), Guedes stated that he signed a document expressing that the country would no longer need the fund’s in loco work – although the decision to keep the office or not would be taken by the IMF itself. “We’re dismissing it, I signed a week ago, you can take a walk outside,” he said.

“He is called a resident of the IMF in Brazil, we who accredit him. We have already asked that, in June of next year, he closes the IMF [no Brasil]. If they [FMI] they want, keep the office. But we’re officially saying we don’t need to have them here anymore. We haven’t needed it for many years. They stayed because they like feijoada, football and from time to time criticizing a little and making the wrong prediction,” Guedes said.

Guedes also used the episode to counter the economic criticisms made by Ilan Goldfajn, former president of the BC (Central Bank), who will assume a management position at the fund.

“Apparently, the former president of the Central Bank was very critical of Brazil and he is going there. He is a good economist, a good friend, but if he already has an apparently very critical and very negative point of view about Brazil, he still needs a representative here?” asked Guedes.

Goldfajn, who is chairman of the board of Credit Suisse, said in an interview with Neofeed this week that foreign investors are not fleeing Brazil – they have “already fled”.

According to Guedes himself, the Ministry of Economy had already expressed its position to the IMF before Ilan’s criticisms and only took the opportunity to announce the measure as a way of rebutting the comments made by Godlfajn.