Honored by BM&FBOVESPA for Brazil’s investment grade rating, President Lula reiterated that the goal is to maintain economic stability.
“Also in the capital market sector, Brazil is no longer a colony: it is a developed nation.” This statement was made on June 16, 2008 by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula) during a ceremony where he was honored by BM&FBOVESPA, the world’s third largest exchange by market value, for the country’s investment grade rating.
Besides President Lula, the following people participated in the event held at the BOVESPA building: the Minister of Economy, Mr. Guido Mantega; the Minister of Development, Mr. Miguel Jorge; the Governor of the Central Bank of Brazil, Mr. Henrique Meirelles; the Mayor of the City of São Paulo, Mr. Gilberto Kassab; the former Chairmen of BM&F, Mr. Manoel Felix Cintra Neto, and BOVESPA, Mr. Raymundo Magliano, the Chairman of BM&FBOVESPA’s Board of Directors, Mr. Gilberto Mifano; and the Chief Executive Officer of BM&FBOVESPA, Mr. Edemir Pinto. President Lula was given a jacket and a cap of the new exchange.
President Lula stated that his presence at the Exchange should be viewed as an “evidence” of the advances made in the economic and political arenas, and then emphasized that Brazil has reached a “common ground” which allows him, as the country’s President, to receive and wear the cap which represents the “landless movement, the labor unions and BM&FBOVESPA.”
President Lula said that he has no party commitments—“But only those related to my soccer team, Corinthians”—and cited the result of the Madeira River power plant auction, where the MW/h prices were below expectations, as an example of how free market mechanisms ensured that the people were the big winners in the auction.
President Lula also availed himself of the opportunity to send a strong message to the market: “Our Administration is responsible for maintaining economic stability,” he emphasized. After citing several measures aimed at keeping prices under control, such as the fact that the growth rate for government expenditures this year was lower than the growth rates for the GNP, the IOF tax and the interest rates, the President said that the responsibility for maintaining stability belongs to everyone, not only to the Central Bank of Brazil, and promised that short-term problems will not adversely impact on the continuation of sustainable growth with social inclusion. “We need ten years more of sustainable growth” to erase all the wrongs which followed a period of “twenty years of no-growth.”
Commenting on the capital market as one of the “country’s growth engines” and that he is willing to discuss new measures for the regulatory and fiscal areas, President Lula concluded his speech by “congratulating” those who, like himself, “believed that Brazil could achieve the current economic conditions,” which he described as being “close to Heaven. The capital market plays a key role in this phase in our history and its figures clearly demonstrate this fact,” he said. “I would like to take this moment to acknowledge the great job that you are doing in our country. Brazil needs BM&FBOVESPA and BM&FBOVESPA needs Brazil,” he added.