Brazil’s Planning and Budget Minister Simone Tebet said this Saturday that right now the creation of a single currency is not discussed with Argentina, but stressed that the country needs trade relations with Mercosur and the European Union to grow.
“At this first moment, there is no discussion of a single currency for Brazil with Latin America or Argentina,” Tebet said during a video address at the Luso-Brazilian economic forum LIDE in Lisbon.
The minister thought about it “there was a lot of noise” in explanations on the matter, but defended that “it is nothing more and nothing less than what Brazil has always done in commercial and financial transactions”.
He also underlined that to return to growth and be competitive Brazil cannot be alone: ”We need Portugal, Europe and Latin America”, he said, after four years of “regression” in which trading partners are been “ignored”. .
“I mostly talk not only from Mercosurbut also of the relationship with Mercosur with the European Union. Putting the house in order from a fiscal point of view, with the emergency, to do the social thing”.
Tebet was a center-right candidate in the first round of presidential elections and in the second round supported Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who after winning elected her Minister of Planning.
Despite the “differences” that exist between the two in economic policies, Tebet assured that there are “full synergy” in the social area.
“End misery, reduce poverty, remove Brazil from the hunger map” are the priorities set by Lula da Silva, he recalled, but also growth must be “guaranteed” because without it no job or income is generated.
“It also goes through fiscal rigidity and I will be austere on this,” he promised.
Brazil must “spend well the few resources you have”: “We do not have the conditions to satisfy all requests but managing is also choosing priorities and that’s what we will do under the determination of the government program”.
Yes or no?
The possibility of a common currency between Argentina and Brazil was an issue that generated friction in late January, in the context of Lula’s trip to Argentina for the CELAC summit.
After various leaks, the presidents of both countries have come to confirm that they were making progress in the creation of “a common South American currency” that will work for “financial flows” and “trade” flows.
In reality, Economy Minister Sergio Massa then explained that the new South American common currency “does not mean giving up the currency of each of the countries but rather finding a common commercial denominator tool that reflects the power of the region’s Gross Product.”
With information from EFE
NEITHER
Source: Clarin
