Thousands of participants of the 59th National Congress of the National Union of Students (UNE) protested, this Friday (14), in front of the Central Bank (BC) building, in Brasília, asking for a drop in the basic interest rate, the Selic .
On June 21st, the BC’s Monetary Policy Committee (Copom) maintained the Selic rate at 13.75% per yearunder the justification that “it is compatible with the strategy of convergence of inflation towards the target over the relevant horizon”.
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The rate has been at this level since August 2022, and is the highest since January 2017. The UNE has been one of the most critical national entities to the BC’s interest policy and has recurrently participated in acts for the drop in the rate. Interest has an impact on tuition fees and on programs such as Prouni and Fies, which grant scholarships and funding for access to higher education.
On the night of this Thursday (13), President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva participated in an event at the UNE congress. On the occasion, he promised to expand the number of universities and technical schools. The last time a President of the Republic attended the event was in 2009, when Lula himself, during his second term, attended the student meeting.
The UNE Congress, or Conune, as it is often called, is considered the largest student meeting in Latin America and gathers around 10,000 participants until next Sunday (16) in the federal capital.
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