Lula criticizes maintaining the interest rate at 13.75% and demands explanations from the Central Bank

One day after the Central Bank decided to maintain the basic interest rate at 13.75% without signaling a possible retreat at the August meeting, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) criticized and shot that the institution’s president, Roberto Campos Neto , needs to be explained to the Senate and the population.

The criticism came during a press conference even earlier in Rome, where he has been participating in bilateral meetings since Tuesday (20). Lula said that she has also been demanding an explanation from the senators for Campos Neto’s performance in office.

He also said that parliamentarians should analyze whether the president of the Central Bank is “fulfilling what the law approved for him to comply with”.

“In the law that has been approved, he has to take care of inflation, economic growth and job creation. He has to be charged, that’s all,” said the president.

Still according to Lula, the President of the Republic was responsible for the decisions of the Central Bank before the legislation that determined the autonomy of the institution, due to the appointment to the position. The PT recalled that Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB) removed several BC presidents.

“Not now, now he can’t do anything because he
[presidente do BC] was not appointed by the president. He was nominated by the National Congress, by the Senate. So, the Senate has the responsibility to charge him. I think that this citizen plays against the Brazilian economy, he has no explanation”, completed Lula.

Lula repeated again that there is no explanation for keeping the basic interest rate at 13.75% a year without demand inflation. Shortly after, the president traveled to Paris, where he will have an extensive agenda of bilateral meetings with heads of state, a speech at the “Power Our Planet” event and a dinner hosted by the French president, Emmanuel Macron.