Mônica Bergamo: Mantega says Bolsonaro’s BC is better than Lula’s at lunch with businessmen

Former Finance Minister Guido Mantega praised the president of the Central Bank, Roberto Campos Neto, at a lunch with businessmen organized by the Esfera Brasil group.

“The Central Bank of now is performing better than in our time,” he said.

According to him, the current commander of the monetary authority was right to lower interest rates in the economic crisis – unlike, he said, Henrique Meirelles, who presided over the BC in the Lula government and raised interest rates in the 2008 crisis.

“Roberto Campos is better than Meirelles,” he said, according to one of the businessmen present at the lunch.

Mantega was the longest-lived commander of the economy in Brazilian history, occupying the Ministry of Finance (nowadays the Economy) from March 2006 to January 2015, during the governments of Lula and Dilma Rousseff. Before, he presided over the BNDES, during the PT’s first term.

A part of the business community is resistant to the former minister, especially due to the phase in which he commanded the portfolio in the Dilma government. But today he is part of the group of economists who collaborate in the elaboration of the PT’s government program.

At lunch, organized at the home of João Carlos Camargo, president of Esfera Brasil, Guido was asked by one of the businessmen if, in October, the country would have to choose between socialism and capitalism.

He replied no, noting that PT governments made concessions and public-private partnerships.

He stated that Lula has repeated the need to improve the population’s living conditions — and that this is done by helping companies to create jobs, not by nationalizing them.

He also stated that Lula’s government will be of the center – reinforcing that former governor Geraldo Alckmin, who will be running for vice president, is of the center and will have a fundamental role in the administration.

Mantega also stated that the Lula of 2022 is the same that won the presidential elections in 2002, and that he ruled for eight years, showing that he does not radicalize his positions.

He also said that every party has radical wings, but that it is Lula’s opinion and thought that count, and that he will give the guidelines for economic policy.

For the former minister, the situation in the country now bears similarities to that of two decades ago, when the budget was “very tight”, but the crisis was deep and required the strengthening of social programs.

Asked about interventions by Dilma Rousseff in the electricity sector, he said that there is currently no intention of the State to manage the market.

And he cited oil as an exception, as it is a sensitive commodity.

The rise in the price of gasoline and diesel has been explosive, and one of the main stress points for the Jair Bolsonaro government.