Haddad sees minutes as ‘friendly’ after Lula’s criticism of BC – 02/07/2023 – Market

The Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad (PT), classified this Tuesday (7) the minutes of the Copom (Monetary Policy Committee) of the Central Bank as “more friendly” after criticism by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) of the action of the monetary authority.

“The Copom minutes came out better than the communiqué. A more extensive, more analytical minutes, making important points about the work of the Ministry of Finance. A more friendly minutes in relation to the next steps that need to be taken”, he said.

A day earlier, Haddad had said that the monetary authority could have been “a little more generous” after the measures announced by the PT administration to improve public accounts. According to him, the BC’s warnings about the fiscal situation refer, above all, to the legacy left by the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government for the current administration.

In the minutes, the BC collegiate gave a positive assessment of the package presented by the economic team of the Lula government on January 12th.

The monetary authority stated that, although it only works in its scenarios with policies already implemented, the execution of the package that promises a fiscal improvement of R$ 242.7 billion could reduce the pressure on inflation.

“Some members noted that the medians of the primary deficit projections of the QPC (Pre-Copom Questionnaire) and the Focus survey for the year 2023 are significantly lower than the forecast in the federal budget, possibly incorporating the fiscal package announced by the Ministry of Finance “, he said.

“The Committee maintained its usual governance of incorporating policies already approved by law, but recognizes that the execution of such a package would attenuate fiscal stimuli on demand, reducing the risk of an increase in inflation”, he added.

In another part of the document, the BC again cited the set of measures, saying that “it will be important to monitor the challenges in its implementation”.