IBGE National Accounts Managers Step Down, Raising Questions Over March GDP Release

Overview

• After Rebeca Palis was removed on January 19, senior managers Cristiano Martins, Claudia Dionísio and Amanda Tavares relinquished their posts in the National Accounts area in solidarity.
• The IBGE said Ricardo Montes de Moraes will take over National Accounts and promised to set a transition timetable through dialogue.
• The departures coincide with a complex base-year and methodological update that shifts the national accounts reference year from 2010 to 2021.
• Staff and the Assibge union warn the changes could jeopardize deadlines and ongoing projects, including Brazil’s role in revising the international economic and environmental accounts manual.
• Those who left management remain at the institute, and the dispute follows months of staff criticism of IBGE leadership, with union outreach to lawmakers reported late last year.