Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Wednesday that the country’s economy would expand by 7% this year. “We project an economic growth of no less than 7% in Y 2010 and we intend to create 2.5 million jobs,” the president said.

According to him, such a high growth expectation is possible due to the growing domestic market, the country’s solid banks and the government’s anti-cyclic policies.

The president reaffirmed the need for reforms of the international financial institutions, in order to prevent another financial crisis.”It is necessary to end lenient standards and repress the financial speculation in the international commodities market,” the president said.

Finance Minister Guido Mantega confirmed the 7% growth estimation. He said that Y 2010 would be a year with high growth rates, as Y 2009 registered low figures due to the crisis effects.

Assuming that the economy will not be overheating this year, he said the inflation rate would meet the target set for Y 2010, which is of 4.5% with a tolerance of 2 percentage pts. In the 1st half of the year, Brazil accumulated an inflation rate of 3.09%.

Earlier Wednesday, Brazil’s Central Bank said that its Economic Activity Indicator (IBC-Br) totaled 139.55 points in May, accumulating a rise of 10.29% in the first five months of the year compared with the same period in Y 2009. —Paul A. Ebeling, Jnr. www.livetradingnews.com

Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Jul 15th, 2010and filed underBRIC, Equities, Latest News, Markets, News & Events.You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site