MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

The fiscal cost of pulling Brazil out or recession was “very cheap”

Finance Minister Mantega said Brazil was well prepared and only “ankle-deep” in recession

Brazilian Minister of Finance Guido Mantega said that the global crisis has a “very low cost” for the finances of Latinamerica’s largest economy which last week officially announced the end of recession.

“Our fiscal cost was very low, between 15 and 30 billion US dollars. It was cheap”, said Mantega in an interview with O Estado de Sao Paulo, one of the country’s leading newspapers.

Data released last week showed that the Brazilian economy expanded 1.9% in the second quarter of 2009, following two negative quarters. Brazil’s stimulus plan, tax rebates and soft loans to several industries demanded expenditure “in the range of 1% to 1.5% of GDP. Very cheap”.

President Lula da Silva was the first to congratulate Brazil for the speed with which the country managed to overcome recession. “The country was really more prepared than the rest of the world to face the economic crisis”, he repeated during several official ceremonies.

Mantega ratified President Lula da Silva’s comments: “some countries were up to the neck in the crisis, others to the waist, while Brazil thanks to its macroeconomic solidness was just to the ankle”.

The Finance minister said that Brazil will end 2009 with 1% positive growth