"We have 370 billion (dollars) of reserves, this is a very significant value. So Brazil is protected," said Levy(Evaristo Sa / AFP)
The finance minister, Joaquim Levy, said the use of international reserves at a time of skyrocketing dollar against the real is a possibility, but it is for the Central Bank (BC) to decide. "We have 370 billion (dollars) of reserves, this is a very significant value. So Brazil is protected. And because the Treasury area accumulated since March additional features that allow us at that time give breath to investors," said he told reporters at an event in Sao Paulo, on Thursday night.
The Levy statement echoes the speech of the President of the Central Bank, Alexandre Tombini, on Thursday morning. Faced with the high dollar, which reached its historical maximum in the fourth, US $ 4.14, Tombini said that the monetary authority will ensure that the foreign exchange market to operate effectively, and did not rule directly use the reserves to handle the escalating US currency.
On the foreign exchange swap program, which is equivalent to the future sale of dollars, Levy said the mechanism serves as insurance for businesses. "The swap is not meant to interfere, but at the same time allows the reserves that Brazil has to be used efficiently to protect the productive sector," the minister said.
With the dollar breaking the barrier of 4 reais, the central bank stepped up its interventions in the foreign exchange this week with dollar sales auctions with repurchase agreements and auction of new currency swaps. On Thursday, the dollar reached 4.2491 reais to the maximum of the session, but closed quoted at 3.9914 reais after the statements of Tombini.
Tax - Levy also defended the spending cuts and the fight against inflation for the country to return to growth, and assessed that despite the difficulties, the Brazilian economy is recovering. "Brazil can not have tax ambiguity, like Brazil have to keep firmly in inflation reduction work. We have to have it permanently in mind," he said.
Amid criticism that the government was promoting fiscal adjustment only at the revenue side, Levy said that this year the economy that is being made is 80 billion reais to expenditures authorized by the budget voted by Congress in April.
Crossing - Minister even cited the book "Typhoon", the Polish writer Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) to explain the storm passes by which the Brazilian economy. The plot of the novel unfolds within the Jukes ship, which at one point finds himself absorbed by the destabilizing force of a typhoon.
"In fact, the hurricane had hit the ship with all his might, devastating the deck, and the dazed and desperate sailors took refuge in the port corridor under the bridge," says the novelist. But the captain, according to the minister Levy, managed to win the turmoil and drive the boat and all aboard to a safe haven.
(With agencies)