Santos Pereira criticizes Centeno: BdP "cannot be a politician"
Former Economy Minister Álvaro Santos Pereira argues that a central bank “ cannot be political, it has to be independent and technical ”. This is how Santos Pereira responded to a question, in an interview with the newspaper Expresso , about how he assessed Mário Centeno’s performance at the head of the Bank of Portugal. Santos Pereira is one of the names mentioned as a possible successor to Mário Centeno at the Bank of Portugal (along with Ricardo Reis and Vítor Gaspar), but he says he is “very happy” at the OECD .
The OECD’s chief economist, speaking to Expresso, refused to “comment on who the future governor will be”, noting that it “could also be a female governor”. “ It is not up to me to comment ”, stated Álvaro Santos Pereira, not even confirming whether he had been approached for the position. “ I am very happy at the OECD, I really like what I do ”, he replied.
Asked about his assessment of Mário Centeno’s performance, Álvaro Santos Pereira responded with a quote from Jerome Powell , the chairman of the US Federal Reserve. Powell, who was also at the ECB conference, “said something fundamental at the conference: for central banks to have an impact and be guarantors of financial, banking and price stability, they must be independent.”
“Therefore, for me the most important thing is that the central bank is independent of political power – the central bank cannot be political, it has to be independent and technical ,” said Álvaro Santos Pereira.
Is this a veiled criticism of Mário Centeno, saying that he was not independent? “ I will not comment ,” said the former Portuguese Economy Minister.
Álvaro Santos Pereira hints that he wants to finish his term at the OECD, where he is chief economist, apparently taking himself out of the running to succeed Mário Centeno. What does he want to do next? “ I haven’t thought about it yet, but maybe I’ll return to Portugal, ” he says in an interview with Expresso.
“At the moment it is not in my plans,” he added, when asked if he would consider returning to active politics. “If I see that the situation in the country is not going well or if I see that the populists are very close to power, it is a question to consider – but at the moment I have no other plans ,” he said.
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