Israeli Set to Become Head of Brazil’s Central Bank

YERUSHALAYIM
Politicians applaud after Brazil's Vice President Michel Temer (C) signed a document notifying him of becoming the interim president after the Brazilian Senate voted to impeach President Dilma Rousseff. (Marcos Correa/Courtesy of Brazil's Vice Presidency/Handout via Reuters)
Politicians applaud after Brazil’s Vice President Michel Temer (C) signed a document notifying him of his new status as the interim president after the Brazilian Senate voted to impeach President Dilma Rousseff. (Marcos Correa/Handout via Reuters)

Israeli economist Ilan Goldfein is likely to be named the next head of Brazil’s Central Bank. A former deputy director of the bank, he is currently chief economist at Brazil’s largest private bank, Itau Unibanco. The report in business daily TheMarker quoted reports in the Brazilian press.

Goldfein, 50, was born in Haifa and is an expert on the Brazilian economy, having worked in the country for more than a decade. The current Bank Governor, Alexandre Tombini, is set to step down next month.

The Brazlian economy has been on the skids recently. The value of the Brazilian reál has been falling daily on international markets due to a sour investment market and inflation, which is running at over 10 percent annually; a surprising number considering that internationally interest rates are at zero percent, or even below zero in some countries.

Last year, Goldfein spoke out against corruption and the income gap in Brazil, attributing many of the country’s economic problems to those issues. “Many people had dreams about how the economy was blooming, but since the economic downturn and the fall in sales of products around the world, the average person has lost his dream of wealth, and public anger has brought us to this low point that we are now at.The middle class, that expected to be wealthy, now see their dream falling apart.”

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