MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Rousseff calls on fractious cabinet to embrace belt-tightening to restore growth
The president said the fiscal adjustment will be done gradually and has started with budget cuts for all ministries Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff has urged her cabinet to embrace fiscal belt-tightening and other measures aimed at restoring business confidence and growth in her second term.
Rousseff pressed the need to clean up the government's overdrawn accounts by reining in waste and doing more with less, a change of economic policy that investors want to see but that has caused frictions within the ruling Workers' Party.
“The fiscal rebalancing that we are undertaking is needed to maintain our course and widen opportunities, preserving social and economic priorities,” Rousseff said at her first cabinet meeting since she was sworn in January 1 for a new term.
The leader said the fiscal adjustment will be done gradually and has started with budget cuts for all ministries. Steps will be taken to cut red tape and encourage investment by expanding private concessions in infrastructure projects.
Rousseff said her government was committed to establishing rigorous corporate governance at state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, which is at the center of a corruption scandal that threatens to implicate members of her party and its coalition allies.
Prosecutors investigating the billions-of-dollars graft and bribery racket have arrested two former Petrobras directors and scores of executives of Brazil's top construction companies charged with paying kickbacks that were funneled to politicians.
Rousseff called for the punishment of those involved without damaging the private engineering companies building many of the country's big infrastructure projects that risk coming to a halt and further depressing a stagnant economy.
“We should punish people and not destroy companies,” she told her cabinet.
Rousseff said the government is doing all it can to guarantee electricity supplies in Brazil, which faces the threat of power shortages and water rationing due to drought that has emptied the reservoirs of hydroelectric dams.
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Jan 28th, 2015 - 05:36 pm 0In theory, sounds nice...but what she could, and won't do, is reduce the number of Ministries, currently at 39...Is this really necessary, other than to attend the aspirations of her Worker's Party (PT), in order to employ all their cronies ? Why doesn't she also reduce, or better, abolish all the absurd benefits of Congress, politicians and normal employees, alike ? Ministers and Senators costs the country US$ 15 million per head, per year, each member of the Lower House costs us US$ 6 million per year....but obviously that still ain't enough, so they need to steal.
Latest news is that 'part' of the what was stolen from Petrobras, over the last few years, amounts to R$ 88 billion....Considering the current value of its shares, that's practically what the company is worth today (or, 20% of its market value 8 years ago).
They estimate PetroBras needs U$20B to make it...
Jan 29th, 2015 - 01:11 am 0For so long they thought PB would save the country how funny its seems to be bringing it down...
:)
PB just published its balance sheet.....showed a profit of about R$ 3 billion.....BUT, ignored the R$ 88 billion that was stolen over the last 10 years....the company's CEO said it would be completely impracticable to consider that as a loss......as it is irrelevant. At best, it could be considered as the cost of investment....nice twist of words, but no credibility whatsoever. If the government weren't the main shareholder, that CEO and the whole directorate would be rotting in jail.
Jan 29th, 2015 - 02:55 pm 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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