(Bloomberg) — President Jair Bolsonaro’s government is kicking out the International Monetary Fund’s permanent representative to the country as its complaints about the institution’s economic estimates escalated into a diplomatic spat.
Economy Minister Paulo Guedes said on Wednesday Brazil won’t recognize the IMF’s permanent mission as of June 30 of next year, when the current representative is due to be replaced. He added that the Brazilian economy shrank about 4% in 2020, way less than the Fund’s estimated contraction of more than 9%.
“The IMF was useful in the past, but Brazil has done an extraordinary job in the fiscal area,” he told CNN Brasil in an interview, shortly after announcing his decision during an event in Sao Paulo. “We don’t need it stationed in the country.”
The IMF said it was in agreement with Brazil’s decision to shut down its representation office in Brasilia by June.
“We expect the high quality of Fund staff’s engagement with the Brazilian authorities to continue, as we work closely to support Brazil in strengthening its economic policy and institutional settings,” an IMF spokesperson said.
Read More: Brazil’s Not-So-Bad Budget Is Starting to Win Over Investors
Guedes was also displeased by recent comments about Brazil’s economic outlook made by former central bank chief Ilan Goldfajn, who’s now taking over as the IMF’s director for the western hemisphere.
“If we have a well-prepared Brazilian at the IMF criticizing the country, I don’t need another critic from the Fund here,” he said.
(Updates with IMF comment in fourth and fifth paragraphs.)
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