|
Rodrigo de Rato, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued a statement in Brasilia, capital of Brazil, praising the Brazilian government for early payment of its debt with the Fund.
"It is a great pleasure for me to visit Brazil once again, this time to mark the occasion of Brazil's early repayment of its financial obligations to the Fund. "I was privileged to meet today President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. I also had the opportunity to meet Minister of Finance Antonio Palocci, Central Bank President Henrique Meirelles, and other senior officials. "I particularly appreciated the President's hosting an event that brought together senior members of the government, members of Congress, and leaders of the business community, to mark Brazil's early repayment. "Since my last visit in September 2004, the Brazilian economy has continued to make remarkable progress. The government's firm adherence to prudent macroeconomic policies has laid the basis for a sustained recovery in growth and employment, a steady reduction in inflation, and good progress in reducing poverty and inequality. "Brazil has also seized the opportunity provided by favorable global conditions to expand trade, boost international reserves, and lower its external debt, thus consolidating market confidence in the economy. "It is against this favorable background that, last month, the government repaid its outstanding financial obligations to the Fund amounting to SDR 10.79 billion (about US$ 15.5 billion), and announced plans to settle early this year its obligations to the Paris Club. We very much welcome these decisions, which reaffirm the growing strengthening of Brazil's economic and financial position. "My discussions with President Lula focused on the challenges that lie ahead for Brazil. I share the President's view that the prospects for continued economic growth and poverty alleviation are now better than they have been for many years. "We agreed that maintaining sound policies and moving further ahead with structural reforms would be essential to strengthen Brazil's resilience to adverse shocks, to realize its formidable growth potential, and to further improve living standards. "President Lula and I also agreed that no effort should be spared in ensuring that the government's social programs, such as Bolsa Família, that have been instrumental in reducing poverty in Brazil, continue to assist the least advantaged in benefiting from macroeconomic stability and growth. "This visit to Brazil shows the close relations between Brazil and the IMF. Although Brazil is no longer a borrower from the IMF, the Fund will continue to play an important role as adviser, and exchange views with Brazil on global economic issues, where Brazil plays an important role. "We in the Fund look forward to continuing to support the Brazilian government's commitment to economic progress and its reform efforts in whatever way we can." IMF - www.imf.org
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
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.