Finance minister: 2015 to be a transitional year

Finance Minister Joaquim Levy said that 2015 will be a transitional year for the economy and a time for strengthening the country's macro-economic foundations.  The statement was made in a speech held during the 50th anniversary ceremony of the National Monetary Council (CMN), on Friday evening (10), in downtown Rio de Janeiro. In his pronouncement, Levy mentioned three major challenges facing the Brazilian economy today.

The first challenge is fiscal and monetary stability. “I believe we are capable of recovering and consolidating macro-economic stability by building up a nationwide consensus aiming to attain fiscal discipline and combat inflation—necessary conditions for the preservation and extension of the latest social and distributive achievements. This week, [I've been] mustering explicit support from our country's main political forces [for this purpose],” the minister explained.

Secondly, he talked about the fiscal adjustment, “which is also an economic adjustment aimed to realign incentives to the ultimate purposes of public policies—not just the fiscal and monetary policy, but also farther-reaching policies, on both labor and social security, i.e., policies that expand investment and the legal security in the economic life.”

The minister went on to argue that the previous challenges would make no sense if the country did not have long-term growth perspectives. “The challenge we have before us is exactly that of launching a new growth cycle in different bases and in a different global economic environment, with an effort in the infrastructure and logistics sector, including the participation of the federal government, the states and the municipalities, and [also] the private enterprise.”

Levy also said that addressing the challenges in education and other areas as is fundamental, not just with a view to achieving fiscal and monetary stability, but also to promote society's own development. “Ever since the beginning of the year, this government has showed its commitment with the creation of the basis for this growth, which has consisted of balancing public accounts.”

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira