Brasília – The minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency, Gilberto Carvalho, stated that the pace of investment will be somewhat slower this year, but that should not prevent large construction works, such as the building of hydroelectric plants, from taking place.
“This will be a year in which investment will be a bit lower, but that does not mean it will be halted. Large works will continue to take place. The building of Belo Monte [hydroelectric plant] should start in July,” he said on radio show Bom Dia, Ministro (Good Morning, Minister), produced by the Social Communication Secretariat of the Presidency, in partnership with EBC Serviços.
According to him, the first year of president Dilma Rousseff’s administration will be a year of “braking to clean the house,” because of increased government spending in 2009 and of losses incurred in revenues to curb the effects of the world financial crisis. Carvalho highlighted that the then-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ordered large volumes of investment and financing from state-owned banks to companies, and lowered taxes to stimulate consumption, all of which were appropriate measures, according to Carvalho.
The [federal government’s] Growth Acceleration Programme (PAC, in the Portuguese acronym, an income transfer program) and Minha Casa, Minha Vida (My House, My Life, a low income housing programme) were the most spared from the cut, according to Carvalho, because they are regarded as “crucial for maintaining the development” of Brazil.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
