During a speech in the Planalto Palace yesterday, November 10, before the Economic and Social Development Council (CDES), the Brazilian Minister of Finance, Antônio Palocci, asserted that Brazil’s growth process is solid and that the country has embarked on a new phase of the economy.
“All the indicators of foreign accounts, investments, and growth show that we are not caught up in a flight of short duration. Brazil has begun a new cycle,” he affirmed.
According to Palocci, it is now necessary to view the Brazilian economic process as a whole, applying the proper incentives with a focus on aspects regarded as basic to the generation of employment.
The Minister referred to Ministry of Labor data demonstrating that 1.6 million formal job positions were created between January and September of this year.
“Maintaining this pace of economic development, job creation, and development, Brazil will surely occupy a different position in the world economy in a few years and will provide its population far better conditions of life, development, and employment than we enjoy at present,” Palocci said.
The Minister also stressed the importance of getting the National Congress to approve the Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) project, essential for the expansion of investments in infrastructure.
Palocci also recalled that over the course of recent years, government investment capacity in Brazil has decreased.
He pointed out that, several decades ago, Brazil was a young country, with nine people contributing to social security for each retired person, and could therefore invest with tranquillity.
Nowadays, he said, the country has 1.4 contributors for each retiree; consequently, the government’s accounts have become tighter, and the possibilities of government investments are more limited.
“To turn this situation around, a combination of measures must be adopted. The government has to save more, to invest where it is needed; we need to improve the entire institutional and regulatory framework, so that private enterprise can make the basic investments.
“And, in certain areas of investment, we must create the public-private partnerships, a project that is in the final phase of consideration in the Congress,” Palocci observed.
Agência Brasil
Translator: David Silberstein