The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said this Thursday, November 5, in London that Brazil should grow 5% next year. He was talking at the opening of seminar "Investing in Brazil," promoted by newspapers Financial Times from the UK and Valor Econômico from Brazil.
The Brazilian leader also assured his audience that Brazil has overcome the international financial crisis, has returned to growth, and is inviting investors to make use of the opportunities offered by Brazil.
To the president, Brazil is living a "silent revolution", translated into a phase of recovery of self-esteem and an "almost magic moment" in its history.
Commenting on Brazil's interest rates, Lula said that he would like them to be a little lower and vowed to fight for this. He used the occasion to call for a reduction in the basic interest rates, the Selic, which is 8,75% a year nowadays, since in the audience was the president of Brazil's Central Bank, Henrique Meirelles.
Lula invited the British businessmen to rediscover Brazil as a place for investments and stated that is Brazil's time: "We, Brazilians, are like that, we're tired of being the country of the future, of so many promises in the 20th century, and now we don't want to miss any opportunity in the 21st century. I'm convinced the 21st century is Brazil's century."
In order to tell what this evolution is, Lula explained, improvising, the Light for All program (aiming providing electricity to all distant areas) and the creation of the special credit program (through which the government operates in areas that are little attractive to private capital).
Expansion of the supply of energy has greatly boosted the sale of electronic products and also those of industries connected to installations, whereas greater access to credit has allowed for the development of small businesses.
On the other hand, Lula's chief of staff, Dilma Rousseff, guaranteed to those participating in the seminar that Brazil has returned to economic growth and may become the fifth main economy in the world by 2016. In an interview to newspaper Financial Times, the president of Brazil stated that the country should become the fifth main economy on the planet in ten years.
During the seminar in London, which discussed investment in Brazil, Rousseff pointed out that the exploration of oil in the pre-salt layer is one more opportunity for foreign investors "at this successful moment the country is living."
At the same meeting, Finance minister Guido Mantega showed excessive concern with the appreciation of the Brazilian currency, the real, against the dollar. He said that the government wants to avoid "irrational exuberance" aiming to hold back the currency, avoiding a growth bubble.
