Finance Minister says Rousseff's impeachment reversed expectations

Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles said that economic agents' expectations have now taken the opposite direction. The statement was made in Shanghai, China, during the Brazil-China High-Level Business Seminar.

He described the trial of former President Dilma Rousseff by the Senate, conducted by Supreme Court Chief Justice Ricardo Lewandowski as entirely democratic.

“This was the process experienced by the country. But the good news is that the causes of all this have been reversed. Brazil's new government was installed in an entirely democratic historic process, overseen by the Supreme Court and in compliance with constitutional norms, in a widely publicized trial.” The outcome, he said, rescued the confidence of economic agents and consumers.

GDP growth

In Meirelles's predictions, the Brazilian economy should expand 2.5% in 2018, with a likely increase in that rate. He also said that the government has worked on structural reforms with a view to recovering the country's yearly 4% increase in the gross domestic product, as has been reported in the past.

“Brazil has historically proved to be capable of having significantly higher rates. And we'll work to carry out all major reforms, so that Brazil resumes growth at some 4% per annum on average, as was once the case,” he said.

The government's goal, the minister reported, is to preserve a stable macroeconomic environment for Brazil and decrease the size of the state, assigning higher priority to increasing efficiency through concessions in infrastructure and privatizations.

*Information from Blog do Planalto and NBR was added to this article.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira