Central Banks
Lula Squandered Rate Cut Chance, His Ex-Central Bank Chief Says
- Lula’s been echoing old, wrong economic ideas, Meirelles says
- Doubts over central bank autonomy, inflation goal hit markets
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Henrique Meirelles, who ran Brazil’s central bank for almost a decade, has a piece of advice for his former boss, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva: Stop talking about interest rates.
Meirelles, who became the country’s longest-serving central bank chief during Lula’s first two terms in office, said conditions were given late last year for the bank to start easing monetary policy. Inflation expectations were converging to target and traders were betting a rate cut would come as early as March.