Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador rattled the country’s financial sector on Thursday by announcing the central bank’s interest rate decision ahead of the official announcement.

López Obrador told reporters Thursday morning that the five-member board had voted to raise interest rates by 0.5 percentage points to 6.5 percent, a pre-emptive announcement seen as a blow to the bank’s independence.

“Yesterday’s decision was taken unanimously and we respect the autonomy of the banks,” he told a daily morning news conference.

This isn’t the first time the president has caught financial markets off guard.Late last year, Lopez Obrador abruptly changed the bank’s nominee, opting for a little-known public-sector economist and sparked criticism at the time. Institutional independence.

January 2020 bill The ruling Morena party has proposed an attempt to force the bank to buy excess dollars, a move critics say undermines the autonomy of the central bank. After backlash, the proposal was eventually shelved.

Experts lined up to criticize the president’s statement on Thursday, renewing concerns that he wants to intervene in monetary policy.

“Since López Obrador became president, there have been a lot of concerns about the autonomy of Mexican banks,” said Gabriela Siller, director of financial and economic research at Banco Base. “With today’s announcement, those concerns have resurfaced.”

Bank of Mexico declined to comment on the news.

Bank of Mexico Independence 1994 And built a reputation for competence in the market. Its new governor, Victoria Rodríguez Ceja, the first woman to hold the position, sought to assure the market and opposition lawmakers that she would preserve her autonomy.

Like other central banks around the world, the Bank of Mexico is struggling to rein in high inflation, which has hit 7.29% In Mexico in the first half of March. Analysts have been lowering their growth forecasts.

“I think that puts the central bank at a disadvantage,” said Alonso Cervera, chief economist for Latin America at Credit Suisse. “People will question the autonomy of the banks, why does the president know the policy decisions in advance and who leaked them?”

Thierry Weitzman, global rates and currency strategist at Macquarie Capital, said the rate hike was in line with expectations and the pre-emptive announcement was an extension of Lopez Obrador’s second guess and push for the central bank over the past three years .

The Mexican peso traded at $20.11/$20.11, its highest level since September 2021. Yields on Mexican government bonds of different maturities generally rose, with two-year bond yields rising in line with interest rate expectations, rising to the highest since January 2019 at 8.46%. The announcement was originally scheduled for Thursday at 1 p.m. local time.

As the bank meeting in Acapulco, where Mexico’s finance minister and central bank governor López Obrador is expected to speak, differs from the standard timing for central bank processes, according to Bloomberg The difference, which could give the president earlier access to information.

Gabriel Casillas, chief economist for Latin America at Barclays, said he didn’t think that would happen again as the bank returned to its normal schedule.