Brasília – This Thursday (3rd), the Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff defended the economic policy and said the government has succeeded in keeping inflation within the target range for the past 12 years. Last Wednesday (2nd), the Monetary Policy Committee (Copom, in the Portuguese acronym) raised the benchmark interest rate to 11% per annum, in a bid to curb rising inflation.
“For the past 11, 12 years, inflation has been kept within the target range set by the National Monetary Council, and so it will be in 2014. The net debt-to-GDP ratio (Gross Domestic Product, the sum of all goods and services produced in the country), which measures the country’s ability to pay its internal debt and still function, has declined systematically. In 2002, the rate was 62%; now it is 33.7%. Our fiscal policy will be maintained, seeing as the debt-to-GDP is on a downward trend,” the president said in an address at the 1st National Forum of the Federation of Brazilian Commercial and Entrepreneurial Associations (Cacb).
Rousseff also said that despite fluctuations in the international financial market, Brazil has managed to stockpile reserves in the past few years. “We have a wealth of reserves to cushion us from extreme volatility. We are one of the developing countries with the most reserves, at US$ 377 billion,” she said.
Speaking to commercial association delegates, micro and small business owners, Rousseff was emphatic in championing reduction of paperwork and simplification of processes for investing in small businesses. “Cutting down red tape in the government’s relationship with micro and small businesses is crucial. The government is wholly committed to reducing paperwork,” she added.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
