In a room packed with the most important figures of the National Party At the time, the president of the Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU), Diego Labat, He said goodbye to his position at the head of the monetary authority after more than four years of management. The focus now would be the electoral campaign, as was rumored in the previous weeks and as he hinted at in his speech prior to the handover of command to the person who until today was the vice president of the institution, Washington Ribeiro.
The Enrique V. Iglesias Conference Room of the BCU It was not enough to accommodate all the people who wanted to participate in the event of the transfer of power of the monetary authority. With people outside and many standing inside, the presence of the presidential formula of the National Party, Alvaro Delgado and Valeria Ripoll, at the event he was at Ambit; a type of occasion that is usually much more marked by institutionality than by partisan politics.
The Vice President of the Republic was also present. Beatriz Argimón, the president of the nationalist bench in the Senate, Graciela Bianchi, and the owner of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), Azucena Arbeleche, He highlighted Labat’s “calm attitude” in his constant search for consensus, as well as the “convictions” that allowed him to achieve concrete results in monetary policy.
Half an hour later than planned, the event began with a greeting from Mario Bergara, who was president of BCU during the last government of Broad Front and fellow member of Ribeiro’s board of directors – as a representative of the then opposition – who took charge of the institution.
A leap into public activity
In Labat’s turn, one of the first things he mentioned was his thanks to a friend: Delgado. In what he described as a “difficult day,” he highlighted the presence of the former Secretary of the Presidency and candidate to succeed him. Luis Lacalle Pou —absent due to an overlapping agenda that led him to inaugurate homes in Tacuarembó—and pointed out that it was he who “convinced him to take the leap into “public activity”. “It’s a difficult leap, but I’m convinced and proud to have taken it,” he said.
The now former president of the BCU He also thanked the head of state and his trust: “Every time I went to bring him a proposal, he trusted the contribution I tried to give him,” he said. As a result, “it was possible to bring inflation to a standstill.” Uruguay At around 4.5% there are tools to bring it to 3%,” he especially highlighted.
Labat, who is shaping up to be a possible —and eventual— Minister of Economy and Finance in a government headed by Delgado, also thanked everyone with whom he shared the economic team headed by the current head of the MEF, Arbeleche. He thanked Ribeiro, his successor, “for always being together, back to back in many decisions” and for putting up with him.
Finally, he greeted all the officials of the Central Bank and the companies that help them, as well as the Employees Association Banks of Uruguay (AEBU)“I am proud to have had these years of dialogue with them, we were always respectful and careful. When we had to say no, we did it, and when we had to say yes, we did it too,” he stressed.
Álvaro Delgado highlighted his leadership in “challenging years”
After the event, Delgado highlighted that Labat “presided over the BCU in challenging years” but valued that “his vision, solvency and serenity allowed him, together with a great economic team, achieve important milestones that benefit us all.”
“One of them was to reach the minor inflation in 18 years, something that seems far away but that makes salaries go further,” he highlighted through a message on his X account about the constant decline of the CPI.
The candidate of the National Party He concluded: “Thank you, Diego, for your enormous contribution over these years and for your commitment to continue working for the future of the country.”
Source: Ambito
