Finance Chief In Brazil Quits Over Remark

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s finance minister has resigned following media reports of a conversation in which he admitted slanting economic data to help the government-backed presidential candidate.

President Itamar Franco on Saturday accepted the resignation and said he was “shocked and perplexed” by the comments, Globo television reported Saturday night.

Finance Minister Rubens Ricupero made his indiscreet remarks Thursday in what he thought was a private chat with a Globo television reporter. But their conversation was picked up by network microphones and inadvertently transmitted to customers with parabolic antennas.

“I have no scruples. What is good, we take advantage of. What is bad, we hide,” Ricupero said according to transcripts of the conversation reprinted Saturday by newspapers throughout Brazil.

Cardoso’s popularity has risen steadily since May, in part because many Brazilians credit him with bringing inflation under control.

The latest poll shows Cardoso with the support of 45% of the electorate, well-ahead of leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s 23%, a month ahead of Oct. 3 elections.