Brazilian presidential candidate defends Central Bank's policies

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's former Chief of Staff and presidential candidate from the ruling Workers' Party Dilma Rousseff defended the Central Bank's current policies on Tuesday.

"It is good the way it is. It is not necessary to make any modifications," she said during a speech in Porto Alegre, in Rio Grande do Sul state.

Rousseff was responding to a declaration made on Monday by opposition candidate and former Sao Paulo governor Jose Serra, who said the Central Bank's autonomy must be maintained within certain parameters.

Rousseff stressed her participation in the current government, in which she was Minister of Mines and Energy for two years and Chief of Staff for seven. She also said that she trusts the Brazilian people's ability to choose their candidate with intelligence.

"I leave it to the electors to make a balance and see who is closer to this government, who is more identified with a platform of development and wealth distribution, and who is more identified with stagnation, unemployment and inequality," she said.

The candidate also talked about her lack of electoral experience, which according to her, may actually be a positive thing.

"It could be like a breath of fresh air in a more traditional manner of doing politics," she said.

RIO DE JANEIRO, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian Central Bank President Henrique Meirelles on Friday defended the decision to raise the country's benchmark interest rate Selic.

The Selic, which has been kept at a record-low of 8.75 percent for almost a year, rose 75 basis points on Wednesday to 9.5 percent.

The Central Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (COPOM) justified the measure as a way to bring the country's inflation rate closer to the target set for this year -- 4.5 percent with a tolerance of two percentage points.

In the first quarter of 2010, Brazil accumulated an inflation rate of 2.06 percent, up from 1.23 percent in the same period last year.

Meirelles stressed that when the market shows an imbalance, with an excess of demand, that must be corrected.

Meirelles said that no matter who will be President Lula's successor, he or she should work to make the country's public debt fall even more.

Brazil's public debt, which amounted to 60 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2002, now takes up 42 percent of the GDP.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Brazil is emerging stronger from the international financial crisis, said Central Bank Governor Henrique Meirelles on Wednesday.

"Recovery is happening at a fast pace," Meirelles told businessmen in Sao Paulo.

He mentioned encouraging economic figures in Brazil in the past months, such as foreign exchange reserves, which jumped from 205 billion U.S. dollars in September 2008 to 241 billion dollars in 2010, despite the crisis.

Foreign direct investment is expected to reach 45 billion dollars this year, Meirelles added.

Editor: Xiong Tong

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