|
Brazil's Minister of Finance, Antônio Palocci, recalled today that during the last two years - Lula's Administration - the Central Bank (BC) has enjoyed effective autonomy in the management of monetary policy and that the results represent a victory for all of society.
In his view, there is a general awareness in the country that it is essential to guarantee this autonomy formally, so that the future capacity of the BC will not be affected by short-run considerations
Palocci spoke at the commemoration of the BC's 40th anniversary and explained his position in favor of the autonomy of the institution. He made it clear that, although he favors autonomy, the measure still depends upon discussions involving various social segments.
The Minister pointed out that there is no doubt that the discussion of this issue reveals a healthy understanding of the fact that price stability represents an important achievement for Brazil.
The Central Bank of Brazil was founded on December 31, 1964. It began to exercise its function as monetary authority on March 31, 1965. Prior to this, the role of "watchdog of the national currency" was assigned to the Superintendency of Money and Credit (Sumoc), the Bank of Brazil, and the Federal Treasury.
According to information provided by the BC, the Sumoc, established in 1945, was in charge of controlling the volume of currency in circulation, the volume of resources banks were obliged to maintain as reserves, bank interest rates, and, consequently, inflation, as well as other tasks.
With the creation of the Central Bank, patterned after the world's most modern institutions, the government decided to reorganize the financial system and transfer responsibility for "defending the national currency" to the institution.
The 1988 Federal Constitution contains important provisions concerning the activities of the Central Bank. These provisions include the Federal Government's exclusive right to issue currency and the requirement of Senate approval, in a secret vote following public debate, of the names indicated by the President of the Republic to fill the positions of president and directors of the institution.
The Central Bank still lacks operational autonomy, however, since it is an autarky linked to the Ministry of Finance.
This question has been a theme of debate for a long time and is taking shape in the National Congress. In many people's view, an autonomous BC would give greater credibility to the country's monetary policy.
Translation: David Silberstein
Reporter - Agência Brasil
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.