BC: government sends Galípolo nomination to the Senate – 05/16/2023 – Market

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) forwarded to the Senate the nomination of the executive secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Gabriel Galípolo, for the post of director of monetary policy at the Central Bank.

In another dispatch, Lula also forwarded the appointment of Ailton de Aquino Santos to the institution’s supervisory board. He may become the first black director in BC history.

The presidential messages were published this Tuesday (16) in the Official Gazette.

The nominations had been announced last week by Minister Fernando Haddad. If his name is approved by the Senate, Galípolo will occupy the board responsible for deciding the level of the country’s basic interest rate.

Lula’s trusted name, Galípolo will need to balance between the BC’s legal autonomy and the mission credited to him to open the way for the cut of the Selic – an appeal by the president echoed by members of the government and by PT cadres since the beginning of the term .

The PT reading is that the high interest rate harms economic activity, whose resumption is seen as crucial for consolidating popular and political support for the Lula government.

Galípolo is one of the government’s bets to become the future president of the Central Bank, after the end of Roberto Campos Neto’s term, on December 31, 2024.

The current secretary denied having received signals in this regard when asked by journalists, but said he was available to act in the most appropriate position in the government’s evaluation.

“No no [sobre ter recebido a sinalização de presidir o BC]. Actually so. What I talked about, both with the minister, and also the president knows this, [é que] I didn’t come here to have any personal career project, it doesn’t make any sense to me. My position has always been, both with the president and with the minister, that I am here to try to collaborate with the project”, Galípolo told journalists the day after his appointment.

“As long as it is understood that I can collaborate and, in the position that it is understood that I can collaborate, I feel comfortable in playing, I am available to the president and minister Fernando Haddad to play and play in the position that they understand is the most appropriate,” he said.

Ailton de Aquino Santos is a career server at the institution. Current analyst at the Central Bank since January 1998 and today heads the Accounting and Financial Execution Department. His choice is in line with the government’s pledge to bring more diversity to senior management.