Loading ...News - Brazil ups infrastructure spending by 142 bln reais
BRASILIA, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Brazil will increase investments in infrastructure projects by 142.1 billion reais ($61.26 billion) through 2010 in an attempt to boost a flagging economy, Chief of Staff Dilma Rousseff said on Wednesday.
“We’ve created investment instruments to combat the crisis,” Rousseff said during a presentation on the public-private infrastructure plan that was first launched two years ago.
The Program to Accelerate Growth, known by its Portuguese acronym — PAC — aims to improve the country’s aging infrastructure, including roads, railways and houses.
The increase will bring total planned investments during President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s second four-year term to 646 billion reais, Rousseff said.
But so far only 48 billion reais worth of public works projects were completed, her office said.
Planning Minister Paulo Bernardo could not immediately detail the source of the new funds, when asked during a news conference. The plan had originally been financed by state-owned companies, the private sector as well as the federal government.
Only last week the government said it would temporarily freeze 37.2 billion reais of its 2009 budget as it gauges the effect of a slowing economy on tax revenue.
Economic growth is expected to slow to 1.8 percent this year from an estimated 5.6 percent last year, according to a central bank survey of market economists.
“We’re seeing a slowdown but we have a large capacity to react,” Finance Minister Guido Mantega said during the PAC presentation on Wednesday.
Lula had said on Monday that the economy could retract.
Wary that a strong economic downturn could hamper the chances of Rousseff, the likely candidate of the ruling Workers’ Party, in 2010 elections, Lula has granted tax breaks and loans and urged consumers to continue spending.
Lacking the charisma of former union leader Lula, Rousseff has reworked her appearance with facial plastic surgery, dyed hair and contact lenses to replace spectacles.
Source: Reuters.
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