Brasília – Brazil is prepared to face turbulence in the international financial market, said Finance minister Guido Mantega, in an address to the Finance and Tax Commission at the Lower House. “We have prepared a strategy to face the situation, with growth. And if it were not for the crisis [in the global economy], our average growth would be over 3.6%,” he said.
The Finance minister pointed out that the development strategy applied in Brazil, over the last ten years, has generated conditions to face a prolonged crisis. The strong points of this strategy, according to the minster, were vigorous growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which reached 3.6% a year between 2003 and 2012. Another important point, he added, was the greater investment, which climbed 6.1% a year between 2003 and 2012
Mantega also said that the growth of investment is above that of GDP. According to him, there is also a strong internal market, different from that of other countries that are living a crisis. He also recalled that the public debt has been behaving, up to the present moment, in a downwards trajectory. “We have consolidated fiscal and financial solidity, with inflation under control. But we are in the wake of the global crisis,” evaluated Mantega.
*Translated by Mark Ament
