São Paulo – Brazil needs good reforms in order to grow and overcome the international financial crisis, said today (22nd) the economist and Professor at the University of New York, Nouriel Roubini, while participating in the international seminar Brazil and the World Economic Crisis, promoted by Brazilian magazine Carta Capital, in the city of São Paulo.
According to Roubini, who is also the chief economist of Website RGE Monitor, the country has challenges to meet. “Brazil needs heavy investment in infrastructure and education. Bureaucracy needs modernizing. All in all, it is a waste that a country with such natural resources and human capital should grow at rates of just 5% or 6%. Brazil is capable of further growing." In 2005, he was called Dr. Apocalypse because he predicted the international financial crisis, and is now one of the world’s most respected economists. “Even in 2007 and 2008, when Brazil was growing a lot, it still grew less than other countries,” he said.
To Roubini, the growth of Brazil, as well as that of other emerging markets worldwide, is going to take years. “And governments must be committed to growth.”
Roubini also stated that emerging countries have learned a lot from previous crises and did their homework assignments. As a consequence, according to him, they are better prepared now. The economist believes that the worse of the crisis has passed, but the best has not arrived yet, and will take a long time to do so. “Even after the crisis is over, growth will be very slow, and the global recovery will be weak."
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
