Newly re-elected Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has said she would soon be announcing measures for economic recovery and to strengthen the fight against inflation, but not before holding an extensive discussion with all sectors.
In her first public appearance a day after her re-election, the head of state told two television channels on Monday that she would attend to her voters’ appeals for change but that, first, she would discuss these with all parties, including the opposition.
Ms. Rousseff was re-elected Sunday with 51 percent of the votes. Her opponent, social democrat Aecio Neves garnered 49 percent. “I am not going to wait for the end of the first term to launch the actions necessary to transform and improve the growth of the economy,” said the President in a reference to the low growth rates and high inflation in the country.
She added that she would be “very clearly” announcing the economic measures she planned to adopt and these would be the result of a consensus among all sectors. “I am going to hold a dialogue with all the sectors. I want to talk with the business and financial sectors (and) with the market to discuss the way for Brazil,” she said.
She admitted that that process would begin only once the market stabilised which could be in November, setting the stage for an announcement of the measures by the end of the year. “So that the country grows, maintains low levels of unemployment, effectively fights inflation, it is necessary to hold a broad dialogue with all the productive forces, with society and with the financial sector. The climate now is of building bridges and not of looking for differences,” she emphasised.
The President will be taking a break after a long campaign leading up to the elections before she resumes her official duties next week. However, she is expected to continue discussions regarding the formation of the next cabinet and especially to decide the replacement for current Finance Minister Guido Mantega.
That decision is anxiously awaited by the financial markets, which in recent months have showed a growing distrust of Mantega and are hoping for an easing of the “interventionist” policies in the economy. The President, however, made it clear that she was in no rush to announce names and that there could be a wide-ranging reform in the cabinet.
“I will announce names at the right time. And I am not going to discuss only one minister, I will discuss my ministry. I said in the campaign that I will have a new government with new ideas,” she told Record TV .
