Roberto Campos Neto, President of the Central Bank| Photo: Fabio Rodrigues-Pozzebom/ Agência Brasil

The president of the Central Bank, Roberto Campos Neto, reinforced this Friday (2nd), his position against the creation of a common currency between Brazil and Argentina, a proposal publicly defended by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in the first days of his rule.

During an event in São Paulo, Campos Neto said he disagreed with the adoption of common currencies in general, citing two episodes in which there was talk of a single currency between the two South American countries. “I’m very much against it, but I’m just a central banker. There were two episodes with attempts to create a common currency in trade between Brazil and Argentina, and in both cases I was against it,” he said.

According to the president of BC, a common currency carries the DNA of two countries. Therefore, interest rates and inflation would be a mixture of both. Campos defended the convertibility of currencies and pointed out that a currency that is used by other countries is not a “cause”, but a “consequence” of other factors.

“Once we have more international currencies, we can think about a complete convertibility”, said the president of the BC, adding that the institution’s plans are to make the real a convertible currency. “But we will do it gradually.”

The BC head’s comments come at a time when President Lula has been criticizing the dollar and publicly defending that countries can carry out transactions using their own currencies, indicating that “central banks could certainly take care of that”.