Minister of Agriculture increases pressure against BC interest rates

The Minister of Agriculture, Carlos Fávaro, started to endorse the criticisms of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) against the interest rate practiced by the Central Bank of Brazil. The minister has defended that the agribusiness sector needs to be one of the government’s allies for the institution to reduce the Selic rate.

Faced with speculative capital, the minister pointed out a drop in the dollar and a negative impact on imports, which ends up generating less revenue for the agro. “Many sectors of the agro are already demonstrating against the interest rate and I am sure they need to be more forceful. The agro needs to demonstrate for the sake of survival”, defended Fávaro.

Despite pressure from the government, the Monetary Policy Committee (Copom), the BC’s collegiate body responsible for setting the Selic, decided to keep the rate at 13.75% in a meeting last week. This Tuesday (27), for example, the Economic Affairs Committee (CAE) of the Senate approved an invitation for BC President Roberto Campos Neto to provide clarifications to the House.

“One of the goals of the Central Bank is to work on controlling inflation. This is going very well. The economic policy is going very well. What is the point of having a basic interest rate, the Selic, of 13.75%? What does he think about jobs, what does he think about the development of this country? Who approved his name was the Federal Senate. And, by approving him, it was on these bases and on this commitment. Favaro.