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Worker protests delay disclosure of Central Bank indicator

Brazilian Central Bank building. Photo: Donatas Dabravolskas/Shutterstock
Brazilian Central Bank building. Photo: Donatas Dabravolskas/Shutterstock

Brazil’s Central Bank reported on Monday that it will not release its financial statistics report for February this week, as expected. Strikes by the monetary authority’s public servants are the reason for the postponement, according to Fabio Faiad, the president of the employees’ national union.

The monetary authority’s press office, which did not confirm nor deny the reason for the delay, said in a statement that the new publication dates will be released “in due course.” This Monday, the Central Bank was due to have released statistics on the external sector. On Wednesday, monetary and credit data was meant to be published, and on Thursday, fiscal statistics.

The daily walkouts from 2 to 6 pm by the bank’s employees have caused a series of delays to the institution’s routine, especially in the disclosure of indicators.

In recent weeks, there has been a delay in the publication of exchange rate data, the Focus Report, and the calculation of the daily P-tax rate, in addition to interruptions in the preventive monitoring of the institution’s instant payment system Pix and the Brazilian Payment System (SPB).

In response to the strike in search of a 26.3-percent wage readjustment and career restructuring, representatives of the Central Bank employees met with the institution’s president Roberto Campos Neto last Saturday. However, an official proposal from the government has not yet been advanced.

The monetary authority employees will participate in an assembly on Monday afternoon to deliberate on the possibility of an indefinite strike starting on April 1. Mr. Campos Neto has consequently canceled his events schedule in Campo Mourão, in the state of Paraná, and will remain in Brasília.