Campos Neto relativizes Lula’s criticism of BC, but reinforces defense of autonomy

The president of the Central Bank, Roberto Campos Neto, relativized this Thursday (19) criticisms made by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to the formal autonomy of the monetary authority, but reinforced his defense of the body’s independence and pledged to stay in office until the end of the mandate.

In a seminar promoted by UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles), Campos Neto said that the formalization of BC autonomy through a law helped to reduce the volatility of markets in Brazil and showed resilience.

He argued that information is taken out of context in some interviews and put Lula’s statements in perspective.

“If you look at the interview, on the one hand, he is proud of [Henrique] Meirelles had independence. On the other hand, what I think he meant was ‘I don’t think we need to have independence in the law, you can have independence without the law and make things work,'” he said.

“But when you think about what’s going on in Brazil and how difficult the election process was in Brazil, I think the market would be a lot more volatile if the Central Bank didn’t have autonomy in law, that would be another element of uncertainty.”

Henrique Meirelles chaired the BC in Lula’s first two governments (2003-2011).

Campos Neto’s comments were made one day after Lula questioned, in an interview with GloboNews, the advantage of an autonomous Central Bank and questioned whether the levels of the current inflation targets are not too low.

In a public speech this Thursday, Lula returned to address monetary policy, questioning why the basic interest rate is at the level it is at — Lula mistakenly quoted a rate of 13.5%, when the Selic is already at 13.75% .

Campos Neto’s term as president of the Central Bank runs until the end of 2024.

In this Thursday’s presentation, justifying the sharpest increase in interest rates in Brazil after the pandemic, the president of the Central Bank said that the country has a living memory of inflation. He also stated that last year’s tax cuts had a material impact and that, without them, the price index would now be at 9%, not 5.5%.

Campos also said that the Central Bank will open the Pix creation protocol to anyone interested so that there is an open path that allows the system to exist abroad.

According to him, the BC has already held talks on the subject with Uruguay, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Canada and the United States.