Lula says that Campos Neto “owes an explanation to Congress”

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) said this Tuesday (7) that the president of the Central Bank, Roberto Campos Neto, owes explanations to the National Congress. The statement was made by the president during a breakfast with representatives of independent media vehicles. Lula had already criticized the Central Bank this Monday (6) for maintaining the basic interest rate (Selic) at 13.75% per year.

“I do not argue with the president of the Central Bank. I made two criticisms to the press. He owes explanations not to me. He owes explanations to the National Congress, to whom he was appointed. It is true that we have two people on the National Monetary Council and there are more people for us to appoint at the Central Bank, ”he said.

During this morning’s event, Lula said that the Central Bank is now to blame for interest rates. “He [Campos Neto] have more responsibility than [Henrique] Meirelles had in my time. Because at that time when Meirelles was from the Central Bank, it was easy to blame the President of the Republic. Not now. Now it’s the Central Bank’s fault,” said Lula.

“Because the president cannot change the Central Bank. It is the Senate that can move or not,” she said. The president also said that he only met Campos Neto once and hopes that the Ministers of Finance, Fernando Haddad, and Planning, Simone Tebet, are “following the situation in Brazil”.

“I don’t know him well, I only met him once, I always assume that people are of good faith, of good will. He wants to get it right, fix the Brazilian economy, that the economy needs to grow again, that interest rates need to be accessible by Brazilian investors. I hope that Haddad is following, Simone is following and that he himself is following the situation in Brazil”, he said.