|
On March 21 the Executive Board of the IMF completed the tenth and final review of Brazil's performance under the SDR (Special Drawing Right) 27.4 billion (about US$ 41.8 billion) stand-by arrangement, which was originally approved in September 2002 and is scheduled to expire at end-March 2005.
The Brazilian authorities and Fund staff and management have jointly considered the future form of relations between Brazil and the IMF.
In light of the sound macroeconomic and institutional framework in place, the government's commitment to pursuing further reforms, and a balance of payments position much stronger than earlier anticipated, the Brazilian authorities have decided not to request Fund support under a successor arrangement. The IMF staff and management fully support the authorities' decision.
The decision by the authorities reflects the impressive results, generally ahead of expectations, of Brazil's macroeconomic stabilization and reform policies that have been supported by the current arrangement.
Underpinned by these policies and a favorable global environment, economic activity has rebounded strongly in 2004, led by robust growth in private consumption and a sharp recovery in investment, bringing real GDP growth to over 5 percent-its highest level since 1994.
External performance has been remarkable, with the trade and current account balances close to record surpluses at present, and net international reserves rising to more comfortable levels. Moreover, inflation is being reduced steadily under the inflation targeting framework.
A consistently strong fiscal performance has contributed to reducing the level and improving the structure of public debt and has greatly assisted in preserving macroeconomic stability, while private sector efforts to strengthen balance sheets have led to a marked decline in external indebtedness.
These developments have significantly lessened economic vulnerabilities and bolstered confidence in the economy. The authorities are committed to continuing with their reform agenda, and further steps to strengthen public finances, through reforms on the social security system, have just been announced and are welcomed by IMF staff and management.
The Brazilian authorities and the staff and management of the IMF look forward to continuing with the close and cooperative policy dialogue between Brazil and the IMF through the usual channels of surveillance and post-program monitoring.
The above is a statement on Brazil by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director, Rodrigo de Rato.
IMF
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj).