He also said he hadn't spoken with his executive secretary
Gabriel Galipolo regarding the bank's presidency, with Campos
Neto due to step down in December 2024. Haddad said this week
Galipolo would be nominated to be the bank's monetary policy
director.
(Reporting by Gabriel Araujo; Editing by Steven Grattan,
Kirsten Donovan)
(Adds comment from finance minister in last paragraphs)
SAO PAULO, May 12 (Reuters) - Consumer price inflation
in Brazil continued to slow in April, data from statistics
agency IBGE showed on Friday, likely helping President Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva in his crusade against high interest rates.
Inflation as measured by the benchmark IPCA index reached
4.18% in the year through April, IBGE said, above a market
consensus of 4.10% in a Reuters poll but down from 4.65% in the
previous month and the lowest reading since October 2020.
"Overall, the inflation picture continues to improve in
Brazil, which is opening the door to rate cuts during the second
half of the year," Pantheon Macroeconomics' chief Latin America
economist Andres Abadia said.
Lula has been calling for lending costs to be lowered from
their current six-year high of 13.75%, in place since August,
but central bank governor Roberto Campos Neto has ruled out an
imminent cut citing inflationary concerns.
Inflation expectations for the end of 2023 seem to have
stabilized around 6% in a weekly central bank survey of private
economists after several consecutive increases, but that would
still be well above the official target of 3.25%.
In April alone, according to IBGE, inflation reached 0.61%,
above market forecasts of 0.54% as healthcare and food and
beverage costs accelerated, but also below the previous month's
0.71%.
Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said in an interview with
local newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo on Friday that projected
inflation for the upcoming year, which serves as the basis for
the bank's monetary policy decisions, "is well under control."
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