Gleisi classifies Campos Neto as a “bolsonarista” and resumes attacks

After a truce during the end of year celebrations, the national president of the PT, Gleisi Hoffmann, resumed attacks on the president of the Central Bank, Roberto Campos Neto, over the basic interest rate. The discourse has been the same since the beginning of the third term of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), that the Selic rate remains high and impedes the growth of the Brazilian economy.

The resumption of attacks occurs even after the BC’s Monetary Policy Committee (Copom) began a cycle of reducing the rate since August last year, going from 13.75% to 11.75% in the last meeting in December (see in full) – there is a forecast that new cuts should occur in 2024 and reach 9% according to financial market analysts.

However, Gleisi says that the BC belongs to Campos Neto and it is he who determines whether the basic interest rate will be reduced or not, without taking into account that the government also holds seats on the council.

“No one can tolerate the tax imposed by Bolsonarist Campos Neto any longer! We need to reduce interest rates now,” he said in a post on social media (see in full).

According to her, Campos Neto is “working in favor of rentiers” and continues “guaranteeing speculators astronomical profits by maintaining a high interest rate that harms Brazil’s economic and social development.”

Gleisi claims that maintaining the rate at 11.75% removes resources that could “become an investment”, and that “is being spent on interest”. “Totaling an increase of 24% between January and November 2023, a number higher than the inflation for the entirety of last year,” he stated without clearly explaining the comparison.

The expectation is that the Copom will authorize another cut of 0.5 percentage points at the next meeting, scheduled for the end of this month.

Criticism from the PT and government members against Campos Neto became a constant throughout 2023, even with the president of the monetary authority signaling cuts and praising the performance of Minister Fernando Haddad, of Finance, for committing to economic policies.

The minister became the main interlocutor between the government and Campos Neto, while Lula even called him “this citizen” several times who was working against the country.