Bolsonaro Denies Any Plans to Privatize Banco do Brasil or Caixa Economica

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The statement was given in response to a report published on Tuesday by the newspaper O Globo. According to the newspaper, the team of Economy Minister Paulo Guedes was conducting studies to give up control of Banco do Brasil.

“Look, I saw on the cover, it was on Globo yesterday, that says that people are starting to study privatization of Banco do Brasil. A low-ranking employee says that – but I have nothing to do with it. I can’t control hundreds of thousands of civil servants in Brazil. For my part, there is no intention of thinking about privatizing Banco do Brasil or Caixa Econômica. None,” he told reporters in the morning, at the entrance to the Alvorada Palace, the official residence.

Steel surcharge

Bolsonaro has shown confidence that the government will be able to reverse US President Donald Trump’s decision to surcharge Brazil’s steel and aluminum exports again. The U.S. leader announced the measure on his Twitter account last Monday, December 2nd.

“You can see, we imported their ethanol, they now want to send us wheat and it’s quite advanced. Now, we are always the little brother. I don’t know how many times their economy is bigger than ours, several times, we fight with slingshots and those guys with a 50-caliber machine gun. I see a certain exaggeration is happening. For now, no surcharge has been imposed, just his promise on Twitter,” he said.

Bolsonaro again denied any artificial government measure to depreciate the Real against the Dollar. This is Trump’s main argument to reactivate the surcharges, since, according to him, the devaluation of the Real would be damaging the sales of North American farmers.

“The world is globalized, the very trade dispute between the US and China influences the price of the Dollar here. Several times Roberto Campos has interfered by selling Dollars. We are not artificially increasing the price of the Dollar. And another thing, if we produce less steel here, less aluminum, which would be natural with the surcharge, the power to do that comes from the USA, there could be unemployment on the other end,” he said.

The Brazilian president also denied having been disappointed with the North American leader, with whom he has maintained good relations since the beginning of his administration. “There is no disappointment because he hasn’t made it final yet. It’s not because a friend of mine talked harshly in a situation that I’m going to turn my back on him”.

Source: Agência Brasil