Clash between Lula and the Brazilian Central Bank caused criticism in the international media

Monetary policy in Brazil was the most criticized theme in the foreign media in the first quarter of 2023.

One of the reasons for this scenario was the clash of the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT, progressive-globalist) with the president of the Central Bank, Roberto Campos Neto.

Abroad, the PT president was mentioned more negatively than the president of the Central Bank.

Lula was the spokesperson for 25% of the negative news about monetary policy. On the other hand, Campos Neto was the target in 17% of the criticism made.

The data are from a survey carried out by Radar +55, the innovation hub of the BCW Group.

It analyzed 295 news items throughout the 1st quarter of this year from the leading media vehicles from 7 countries: Germany, Argentina, China, the United States, France, England, and Mexico. Here is the full text of the study.

“Maintaining the oppositionist discourse of the election period, the government itself had an active voice in the negative exposure of the country when dealing with interest rates and questioning the autonomy of the Central Bank.”

“The uncertainties and lack of perspectives arising from this conduct were also pointed out as a factor discouraging foreign investments,” says an excerpt from the study.

The survey shows that the government’s clash with the Central Bank causes “instability in the financial market” and fosters “criticism of the government’s stance, driving away investor confidence in an obscure and conflicting scenario.

Since the beginning of his mandate, the president, his ministers, allies and his party, the PT, have been hardening and raising the tone of criticism of the high-interest rates in the country.

Currently, the Selic rate is 13.75%.

METHODOLOGY

The +55 Radar uses the IDM methodology, developed by the BCW Brazil Group, to evaluate the reputation of the Brazilian economy in the press of 8 countries.

The IDM algorithm considers more than 20 variables in analysing each spontaneous media result. The criteria are quantitative and mainly qualitative.

They refer to the media vehicle in which the result was published and to the story’s content, allowing the creation of insights and data intelligence with the crossing of information and thematic or chronological clippings.

To measure the score, there is a report classification. Poder360 highlights the following analyzed criteria:

1) if the text has positive or negative content;

2) the emphasis is given to the Brazilian economy;

3) if there is a photo and in which vehicle it was published.

This information is included in an automated system. The scores of each report are added up, and the final balance is obtained.

With information from Poder360