Finance Minister Fernando Haddad.| Photo: Washington Costa/MF.

The Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, said that he considers the statement from the Central Bank that announced this Wednesday (22) the maintenance of the basic interest rate (Selic) at 13.75% to be “worrying”. “I considered the statement worrying, because today we released the bimonthly report of the Fiscal Responsibility Law showing that our projections for January are confirming the public accounts”, said the minister.

“The Copom even signals the possibility of an increase in the interest rate, which is already the highest in the world… Depending on future decisions, we may even compromise the fiscal result. Soon there will be problems for companies to sell, collect taxes, added the minister.

The minister hopes that the Copom minutes will attenuate the statement released this afternoon, as occurred at the committee’s first meeting this year. The minutes will be released next week. “The first communiqué came very hard, the minutes were attenuated… I hope this happens again, but we are going to send our analysis to the Central Bank on what is most recommended for the Brazilian economy to find balance”, said Haddad.

In the communiqué, the BC pointed out among the upside risks to the inflationary scenario “uncertainty about the fiscal framework and its impacts on expectations for the trajectory of the public debt; and a greater, or longer-lasting, discouragement of longer-term inflation expectations”. The minister said he does not consider that the lack of definition of the new fiscal rule has influenced the Copom’s decision.

“I do not think so [influenciou], because the PEC framework was scheduled for August. I undertook to deliver together with the LDO to the National Congress. The disclosure was scheduled for March and will take place shortly after our visit to China. This cannot have been part of the Copom’s considerations at this time,” he said. Haddad pointed out that he intends to deliver a consistent rule for the medium and long term, which provides sustainability for public accounts.