Lula: Brazil Doesn’t Need Foreign Loans to Keep Growing

In an address, Monday, January, on a national radio and television pool, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that by liquidating Brazil’s debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the country will be able to invest more on the population.

"By gaining sovereignty, we are turning a page in our country’s history. Brazil will move forward under its own power," Lula affirmed in the 9-minute speech.

Lula also noted that "the best thing" is that this financial independence is happening together with a series of other accomplishments by the Brazilian people, just when, according to him, Brazil is achieving the best results in recent years in reducing poverty and distributing income.

According to Lula, the Brazilian government repaid the IMF the US$ 15.5 billion in standby funds obtained to deal with the 2001-2002 crisis.

"We are proving, among other things, that we no longer depend upon foreign loans to keep growing; we can do it with our own resources. This means independence and development," he affirmed.

Among the country’s other recent accomplishments, he highlighted the growth of the salary mass and the increase in personal credit, as well as record exports.

Lula remarked that, when he took office, the country was spending US$ 3 billion per year on social programs. "In 2005 we invested US$ 7.4 billion. And this year we will reach US$ 9.6 billion, directly benefiting 40 million poor Brazilians," he said.

In December the Brazilian government announced it would pay off its US$ 15.5 billion debt to the IMF ahead of time. Last week the managing director of the IMF, Rodrigo de Rato, from Spain, visited Brazil to make the advance payment official.

Agência Brasil

Tags:

You May Also Like

Brazil Getting Ready to Go to Space in 2006

In an interview with Russian news agency RIA Novosti, the President of the Brazilian ...

Jeitinho, Brazil’s Creative Way to Break the Law and Feel Virtuous About It

American historian Robert M. Levine, director of Latin American Studies at the University of ...

Brazil Expecting US$ 39 Billion Trade Surplus in 2007

Brazil exported US$ 2.607 billion last week, a daily average of US$ 521.4 million, ...

Brazilian Oil Output 6% Higher than Last Year’s

Petrobras's average oil production in Brazil in September was 2,003,940 barrels a day, a ...

Favela Kids in Brazil Get 50 Sports Centers

Brazil’s Minister of Sports, Agnelo Queiroz, on Friday, February 3, inaugurated 50 more Segundo ...

Bulgaria Is Already Celebrating Dilma as New President of Brazil and One of Their Own

Given the almost certain victory of the Brazilian ruling party’s presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff, ...

Brazil’s Former President Cardoso on Deutsche Bank’s Advisory Board

Former Brazilian president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, is one the members of the Latin American ...

A Brazilian Voice Against US and EU Protectionism

The governor of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, Germano Rigotto, ...

Forecast Still On: Brazil’s GDP to Grow 3.4% This Year

In its March Conjunctural Bulletin, published Wednesday, March 8, Brazil’s Institute of Applied Economic ...

Lounging to the Sounds of Brazil

Bossa Nova Lounge, a two-part collection is a selection of rare tracks with songs ...