MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Marina Silva pledges economic stability and a “fiscal responsibility council”

“We will not take chances in economic policy. We will not reinvent the wheel. Our pledge is to create an environment that attracts investments”

Former Environment Minister Marina Silva, one of the two main contenders in Brazil's Oct. 5 presidential election, said on Thursday that, if elected, she will not embark on any “adventure” in economic policies.

 The candidate of the PSB, who has become the biggest obstacle to President Dilma Rousseff's bid for re-election, told Globo television that to spur growth, Brazil needs to return to economic policies initiated 20 years ago but abandoned by the incumbent.

“Our commitment is to maintain economic stability with policies supported by fiscal responsibility, inflation under control, and free trade,” Silva said.

Polls show no candidate will win a majority on Oct. 5 and that Silva is likely to advance to an Oct. 26 runoff against Rousseff.

The economic policies that finally tamed Brazil's chronic inflation were adopted in the early 1990s by President Itamar Franco and continued through the administrations of Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Lula da Silva, the candidate said.

Silva, who served alongside Rousseff in Lula's 2003-2011 administration, said that slowing growth, rising inflation and increases in public spending are due to Rousseff's decision to stray from proven policies.

Rousseff, an economist, is the political protégé of Lula. “Dilma took chances and the consequence is a country with low credibility, low growth, low investment and high interest rates that scare investment away,” Silva said.

“We will not take chances in economic policy. We will not reinvent the wheel. Our pledge is to create an environment that attracts investments and that will be possible only with a government that has credibility,” the PSB candidate said.

Silva said that as president, she would limit the percentage increase in public expenditure to the rate of economic growth.

One of the first steps in a PSB government, Silva said, would be the establishment by law of a “fiscal responsibility council” to audit public accounts and ensure transparency.

Such a council, she said, would at the same time prevent the waste of public resources on infrastructure projects that end up costing four or five times as much as promised.