President: Economic crisis overcome in Brazil

Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has declared the economic crisis in his country is over and it is time for businessmen to start investing again.

At Tuesday’s opening of the government’s Economic and Social Development Council (CDES) extraordinary meeting, one year after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Bank sent world markets into shock, Lula stressed the importance of renewing investments.

“In the times of crisis, we discussed how to defeat it and I think in Brazil it has been overcome. The only problem is the external market, and I cannot convince anybody to buy,” Lula said.

Lula urged businessmen to return to investing in the country, where opportunities would flow from the soccer World Cup in 2014 and oil exploitation in the earth’s pre-salt layer off Brazil’s coast.

He also urged CDES members, who come from government, business and civil society, to form a work group to study the necessity of creating a productive chain able to assist the pre-salt oil exploitation.

Lula compared the crisis to a bad fever, “the fever has passed and now it is not necessary to take antibiotics, but to take vitamins.”

On Friday, the Brazilian government published economic data for the third quarter, which showed growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 1.9 percent compared with the previous quarter, officially setting an end to the recession in the country, which lasted about two quarters.

Lula said it was also a moment to celebrate the end of some sectors’ arrogance and the collaboration of all those who contributed to the recovery.