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President Rousseff pledges to cut “Brazil cost” and keeping inflation in check

Thursday, February 28th 2013 - 06:07 UTC
Full article 21 comments
“Our country has to change in the direction of greater competitiveness” said Rousseff “Our country has to change in the direction of greater competitiveness” said Rousseff

President Dilma Rousseff said on Wednesday that Brazil must cut its high business costs to become more competitive and vowed to keep inflation in check. The leader anticipated that 2013 will be a year of major infrastructure investments in roads, railways, ports and airports to try to stop bottlenecks from holding the economy back.

The president said Brazil has no choice but to become more competitive and to reduce the costs of doing business and will proceed with such actions as opening up the country's crowded ports to private initiative despite opposition from labour unions.

“Brazil has an unnecessary cost with its ports. We have to open up to competition because the ports are part of the so-called Brazil Cost,” she said at a meeting of government officials and some of the country's top business leaders in Brasilia.

“Our country has to change, and change in the direction of greater competitiveness,” she said.

Brazil's oil industry will take a big step towards tapping the large potential of its sub-salt-level offshore oil reserves with auctions scheduled for November, she said.

Brazil's sub-salt offshore fields are believed to contain as much as 100 billion barrels of oil, enough to supply all US needs for 14 years. Output from the fields is expected to continue to expand to more than 6 million barrels a day by 2020, making Brazil one of the world's major oil producers.

The world economy should improve this year and help Brazil grow, Rousseff said, pointing to China's “soft landing” as a reason for diminished fears of crisis in many countries.

Brazil's economy only grew by about 1% last year, despite a barrage of tax breaks and other government stimulus measures. Most economists expect a rebound in the second half of this year as the effects of those incentives start to kick in.

Rousseff vowed continued commitment to the main pillars of the economic strategy that has given Brazil financial stability for over a decade: inflation targeting, fiscal discipline and a flexible exchange rate.
 

Top Comments

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  • ChrisR

    “Brazil must cut its high business costs to become more competitive and vowed to keep inflation in check”

    But she and all the other presidents have carried out policies guaranteed to ensure high business costs with protectionist measures which penalise imports.

    And who pays to keep these inefficient companies in business: the consumer does.

    No, Brasil has a long way to go before it becomes a true world class country and fixing the market (they think) will always end in tears: and it hasn’t finished yet.

    Feb 28th, 2013 - 11:02 am 0
  • gecmartins

    At least she understands that the fu**ing unions, whose leaders and members are lazy as hell, get in the way of development.

    Feb 28th, 2013 - 07:38 pm 0
  • Brasileiro

    @ 1
    Why do you ever talk about my country. In portuguese: “ Se nós vamos chorar, sofrer, passar fome, isso é problema nosso, porque somos nós que escolhemos nosso caminho. Você não precisa ficar nos alertando sobre nossos erros.”

    Feb 28th, 2013 - 09:18 pm 0
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