Tax & Spend
Lula Raises Doubts About Fiscal Goal, Causing Currency Selloff
- President says it’s more important to keep country growing
- Interview to local Record TV leaks to market; real weakens
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President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva cast doubt on the need to meet Brazil’s fiscal targets, saying in an interview with a local TV station that he is “not obligated to set a goal and stick to it” if he decides he “has more important things to do.”
“It’s just a matter of vision,” Lula said in the Tuesday interview with Record TV. “This country has no problem if it is a zero deficit, if it is a 0.1% deficit, if it is a 0.2% deficit. There is no problem for the country. What is important is that this country is growing, that the economy is growing, that employment is growing, that wages are growing.”