MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lula demands swift action from Obama with US crisis

Lula: "Obama needs to act swiftly"

US President-elect Barack Obama needs to act swiftly to solve the economic crisis said Brazilian leader Lula da Silva speaking Thursday before the country's Economic Development Council in Brasilia.

President Lula da Silva said that Obama "who has won elections with an unprecedented display of political strength in the history of the US, will have to address immediately the US crisis, he must act swiftly to avoid things getting worse". Nevertheless he hoped "it won't take longer than one year to solve the crisis", because if the crisis lasts longer, "US citizens will start to blame him for their financial woes". "Now the blame is on the current administration, not in a year's time, but I think Obama is sufficiently intelligent to act quickly and avoid the crisis from spreading further", said the Brazilian president. However Lula da Silva was also quoted saying that the worst of the global financial crisis was over and Brazil now needed to prepare for after the crisis. Economy minister Guido Mantega also underlined that Obama must act fast if he is to avert "a deep recession", although the "critical phase" of the financial crisis is over, "there's light at the end of the tunnel". Obama is in a similar situation and with the same challenge as President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933 when he took the country in the midst of the depression that begun in 1929, "but Obama has an advantage: the US economy still is not in a full fledged recession; his challenge is how can he recover the US economy, but fast". President Lula da Silva also said he hoped a G20 meeting of Finance ministers this week in Sao Paulo would help a little to resolve the global financial crisis. Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the world's 20 leading economies will meet in Brazil's largest city from Friday to discuss new regulations for the global financial system. Brazil wants emerging countries to have a bigger role in the governance of global financial institutions.