the president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) responded to criticism from part of the financial market, this Thursday (5), during the inauguration ceremony of the Suzano cellulose factory (), in Ribas do Rio Pardo, in Mato Grosso do Sul.
It is one of the largest factories with a single cellulose production line in the world. Named “Projeto Cerrado”, it is located on BR-262, about 98 kilometers from the state capital, Campo Grande.
The factory has a production capacity of 2.55 million tons of cellulose per year. The investment was R$ 22.2 billion, of which R$ 15.9 billion was allocated to the construction of the factory and another R$ 6.3 billion was dedicated to initiatives such as the formation of the planting base and the logistical structure for transporting cellulose. .
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In his speech, Lula highlighted the prospects for growth of up to 3.5% in the Brazilian economy in 2024 and data such as the low unemployment rate in the country. The President of the Republic reacted to criticism from part of the market after the announcement of the government’s fiscal measures last week.
Since the announcement of the tax package measures and also the exemption from Income Tax (IR) for taxpayers who receive up to R$5,000, by the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad (PT). In recent days, the dollar has surpassed the R$6 mark.
“I started the year [de 2023] with the IMF [Fundo Monetário Internacional] telling me, in the city of Hiroshima, Japan, that the Brazilian economy would grow by just 0.8%. I told the general director of the IMF: ‘Ma’am, you may know a lot about the IMF, but you don’t know Brazil’”, reported Lula.
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“Growth was four times greater than the IMF predicted. Now, once again, some people in the market began to announce and boast that the Brazilian economy would not grow more than 1.5%. And, luckily for us, the Brazilian economy will grow 3.5% this year. And, if you’re careful, it can reach 4%. It is one of the biggest growth rates of any country in the world”, added the president.
Lula mentioned a survey released by Quaest, on Wednesday (4), which showed a worsening in the government’s evaluation among managers, economists, analysts and investment fund operators.
returning to the beginning of the PT member’s third term – when nine out of ten investment fund professionals also had a negative assessment of the government.
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“Yesterday a survey came out saying that 90% of the market, of those who make up Faria Lima, are against my government. I already won 10% because, in the elections, they were 100% against”, joked Lula. “In 2010 [ao fim de seu segundo mandato]I delivered the economy growing 7.5% per year, the biggest generation of jobs in the history of this country, and I will deliver again”, promised the PT member.
According to Lula, “people have the right to participate in the results of growth” of the economy. “It’s the least we can do. This country already grew 14% in the 1970s and, when we measured it, the people were poorer. Growth has to be distributed”, he argued.
Earlier, Tebet had already defended the president from market criticism. “I can’t believe that, in a land where everything can be planted, with the largest sources of fresh water in the world, with public and private investments in Brazil, with the lowest unemployment rate in history and the highest employment rate , having lifted 3 million people out of extreme poverty, the market evaluates your government as bad by 90%. This is not impartiality. This is playing against the country”, stated the minister.
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“And whoever plays against the country wants to help sink the country. We won’t let it go, thanks to the private sector, agribusiness, commerce and industry”, added the Minister of Planning, who is part of the government’s economic team.
The head of the Civil House, Rui Costa (PT) also criticized the market’s negative reaction.
“This is real life, the real economy. Here are the people: managers, owners, managers, production workers. Who, with their work and intelligence, help build Brazil’s real economy. President Lula was elected and chose the motto for his government: ‘union and reconstruction’. This means talking to everyone”, said the minister.
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“The president received a country in fiscal disarray, without any fiscal responsibility for those who were here. It’s not a speech”, continued Costa. “In 2022, the government that was here borrowed R$11 billion from Caixa Econômica Federal to help taxi or app drivers, with loans from Caixa. More than half of those who took out a loan didn’t even have a driver’s license.”
The minister classified market analysts who make projections about the Brazilian economy as “pessimists”. “They said we would grow 1% last year. We grew 3%. This year, these same pessimists said that Brazil would grow 1.5%. Brazil will close the year growing 3.5%”, he stated.
“I am a lucky Brazilian”
In his speech, Lula also took the opportunity to mock those who claim that the president was “lucky”, due to a combination of external factors, in his governments. “I am really a lucky Brazilian, and very lucky,” he said.
“When I was elected president for the third time, I had in mind that we had a semi-destroyed country. You probably have no idea what happened to this country”, continued Lula, without mentioning the name of the former president. Jair Bolsonaro (PL).
“We spent two years rebuilding the country. You have no idea how many schools we found paralyzed, the number of Minha Casa Minha Vida houses that were paralyzed. Someone, in this country, invented that they were going to create a Green and Yellow Card, a Green and Yellow House, and I didn’t see any house”, he stated.
In addition to Lula, Tebet and Rui Costa, the vice-president Geraldo Alckmin (PSB)who is also Minister of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services, and the state governor, Eduardo Riedel (PSDB).
