One Percent Yearly Growth Not Normal for Country Like Brazil, Says Treasury Secretary

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Secretary of the National Treasury, Mansueto Almeida, said on Thursday, March 5th, that the country is experiencing “tremendous difficulties” and said it is not “normal” for a nation like Brazil to grow one percent a year.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) result for 2019, released on Wednesday, March 4th, reported that the Brazilian economy had grown only 1.1 percent.

“I’m deeply concerned, I don’t sleep well, it’s not normal for a country like Brazil to grow at a rate of one percent a year. Clearly, this causes frustration in several segments of society,” Mansueto said during the opening of the CONSAD (National Council of State Administration Secretaries) Forum in Brasília.

On Wednesday, the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, said that the GDP result had been expected by the government, and that he did not understand the “commotion” regarding the figures.

Mansueto’s statement was given at a time when the secretary stressed that reaching a consensus on what Brazil needs to do to have greater growth through debate and transparency was crucial.

According to him, no one is advocating measures such as increasing taxes and the complexity of the tax system, for instance.

The secretary further mentioned a comment made on Wednesday by Chamber President Rodrigo Maia on GDP, when he stressed the significance of state participation in the country’s development. In his opinion, what Maia intended to say was that space must be created in public accounts to increase public investment. “Everyone wants fiscal adjustment to increase public investment. Public investment in Brazil is very low,” he said, stressing the relevance of the reforms.

On Wednesday, when explaining the statement, Maia told Broadcast (the Estado Group’s real-time news system) that he advocates the reforms so that the Brazilian state may have a way to open up investment capacity.

Mansueto further claimed that Brazil has made significant achievements, and that the situation in the country has improved greatly. To progress, he said “calm and transparency” are needed and the political debate must be intensified, respecting the differences.

The secretary also rejected the notion that Congress would be dragging its feet on the reforms. “It is not slowing it down, it is debating, it is within its timing,” he said, adding that the government must establish an increasingly transparent dialogue with Congress and the population on the choices that are being made. “We must make a greater effort to clarify to the population what choices we are making,” he concluded.

Mansueto also said that Congress is open to debate, and that there is a much more favorable environment for talks. As an example, he mentioned the Central Bank’s independence bill. “Not everyone needed to agree on the independence of the Central Bank, but today it can be debated,” he said, pointing out that he had not seen this in a long time.

(Source: Infomoney)