Otto wants a hearing on 9/17 and says that Galípolo stated that there is a tendency for interest rates to be stable

The leader of the PSD in the Senate, Otto Alencar (BA), said this Tuesday, the 3rd, that the nominee of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for the presidency of the Central Bank, Gabriel Galípolo, indicated that “there is a tendency for interest rates to be stable”.

“I spoke with him about the current issue, the projection of interest rates, now and in the future. He said that there is a tendency towards stability,” said Otto, after receiving a visit from Galípolo this morning.

The PSD leader also stated that Galípolo told him that he saw a better economic scenario than experts had predicted. “He told me that economic growth this year is expected to be greater than expected. Some banks are estimating growth of up to 3.1%. The economic indicators are good,” said the senator.

Otto defended that Galípolo’s hearing be held on September 17th, and not on the 10th, as the government wants and was exposed by the Minister of Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha, on Monday, the 2nd. Otto also criticized the minister for his statement yesterday and said that there was “undue interference” by Padilha when announcing the rapporteur for the appointment of the president of the BC.

“It was undue interference by Minister Padilha, he should not have appointed the rapporteur (for Galípolo’s nomination),” said the senator. “Padilha’s statement was completely undue and inappropriate, he is not the one who appoints the rapporteur,” he added. Padilha said that the rapporteur for the nomination is Senator Jaques Wagner (PT-BA).

The speech against Padilha shows dissatisfaction with the minister’s performance in this case. Vanderlan Cardoso also criticized the minister earlier, saying that the announcement he made “only gets in the way” of setting a date for the hearing. In addition to Padilha announcing, in a press conference yesterday, the date for the hearing and the rapporteur of the nomination, the Secretariat of Institutional Relations confirmed, last week, an agreement for the hearing to be held on the 10th, which had not existed until now. The president of the CAE had been working towards this, but there was resistance from the Senate leadership to this happening.