Brazil is resuming sustainable growth, said Economy Minister Paulo Guedes today (13th) in Washington. In a series of meetings with the G20 countries (group of the 20 largest economies on the planet), he presented data on the country’s economic recovery and reaffirmed Brazil’s role in providing food and energy to the rest of the world.
“I bring good news from Brazil. We are resuming sustainable growth, our own growth dynamics. Growth estimates have been revised upwards all the time,” said the minister in the US capital. In addition to G20 meetings, Guedes participates this week in the annual autumn meetings (in the northern hemisphere) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
Over the course of this week, the minister made four presentations at G20 meetings. According to Guedes, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP, sum of goods and services produced) is expected to grow 3% in 2022 and maintain its pace for a long time. For him, the fact that the IMF has revised, from 1.7% to 2.8%, the GDP growth forecast this year serves as proof of the good moment that the Brazilian economy is going through.
According to Guedes, federal public spending fell from 26% to 18.7% of GDP in the last two years, and the unemployment rate dropped from 14.9% to 8.9% in the same period. The minister recalled that gross public debt is around 77% of GDP, at the same level as in the period before the pandemic.
For him, the country had agility in facing the covid-19 pandemic, with the introduction of emergency aid and aid to states and municipalities. This helped the country to be growing today. The fact that the Brazilian Central Bank started raising interest rates before most of the world helped to fight inflation.
OECD
The minister repeated figures, such as that Brazil has US$ 200 billion in contracted investments for the next 10 years. According to him, this was only possible because of the reforms carried out in sectors such as infrastructure and energy. Guedes highlighted that Brazil is converging on the best international practices, as part of the process of joining the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
In the minister’s assessment, Brazil is aligned with the reform agenda and the improvement of the business environment. He recalled that the OECD has environmental preservation guidelines and that Brazil has the potential to develop a significant green economy market. “Brazil strongly supports OECD discussions, including for carbon mitigation approaches,” he said.
Guedes highlighted that Brazil has competitive advantages in relation to the environment, such as strict environmental legislation and the ability to produce clean energy. He also stressed that the country is one of the main global food producers and plays an important role in providing food security to the planet.
