Brazil will continue to boost investment as a measure to maintain economic growth amidst the world financial crisis, a government official said Wednesday.
In a presentation before the House of Deputies, Dilma Rousseff, minister-chief of the Civilian Household of the Presidency, said the government, under the Program for Growth Acceleration (PAC), will maintain and even increase the investment flow so that "the impact of the crisis will not result in exorbitant costs" to Brazil.
The program will be a key part of the measures the Brazilian government, led by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is adopting to tackle the international economic slowdown, she said.
"The PAC produces a high-level of public and private investment and creates a huge consumer demand," she said, noting it becomes a tool for mitigating the effects of an overall slowdown as the country is preparing for the world's economic recovery in the future.
Rousseff, while noting that the country is enjoying a better economic situation than in the past, said the amount of investment under the PAC will see an increase of 26 percent by the year 2010 to some 636.2 billion U.S. dollars.
The program, launched by Lula in 2007, was designed to produce a sustainable economic growth of 5 percent annually by boosting investment in such fields as energy, logistics and infrastructure.
Though concerns are growing over that the global crisis will hinder the implementation of these huge investment plans, the Brazilian government has denies that the country would enter into a recession as the program would be a major anti-recession weapon.
Thanks to the fiscal balance and a low-level public debt, Brazil has been less affected by the ongoing global financial turmoil than other countries, according to Brazilian authorities.
On Brazil's exploration of the newly-discovered pre-salt-layer oil reserves, Rousseff said the process will not be halted.
Some experts have suggested that the exploration should be suspended due to the recent sharp fall in oil prices at the international market.
"The pre-salt project can not be postponed (as) it will be crucial to the recovery after the economic crisis," said Rousseff, who noted that such investments will turn Brazil from an oil importer to exporter.
(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2008)
