The vice-president of the Republic and minister of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services, Geraldo Alckmin, criticized the new level of the Selic rate, which was raised to 12.25% this week, and said he expected that next year, from the changes at the Central Bank, there is something “more reasonable”. “So, I hope that next year, with the changes at the Central Bank, we will have something more reasonable. Because this ends up inhibiting investment”, said Alckmin during an agenda at the Manaus Free Trade Zone Superintendency.
In 2025, the composition of the BC will change following the new presidency of Gabriel Galípolo and the inauguration of three new directors appointed by the President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. According to the BC, the entire current board, including Galípolo, current director of Monetary Policy, voted to raise the Selic by one percentage point on Wednesday, the 11th.
For Alckmin, it is “even worse” if it is considered that the increase in interest rates by the BC was a response to the fiscal environment, since an increase of one percentage point in the rate increases the government’s debt by R$50 billion. “It seems like a mistake to me,” he said.
For the vice president, there is a problem in the current monetary policy model, which considers energy and food prices, which are susceptible to climate and geopolitics. In this sense, Alckmin praised the North American system which, according to him, does not take these two items into account in its analysis.
“In the United States, the Federal Reserve has two missions. A mission is employment. And the other is to control inflation. It does not take food into consideration. Food is climate. It won’t rain because I raised interest rates. It only harms the economy and does not solve the problem. It’s not because of excess consumption. The same thing is energy”, said the minister.
On the day of the Copom decision, the increase in the Selic had already been the target of a critical motion approved by the National Council for Industrial Development (CNDI), a body chaired by Alckmin.
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The council’s position was approved at an extraordinary meeting and unanimously approved by representatives of 20 ministries and 21 civil society entities that make up the CNDI.
