Economic recovery requires political action, says Lula

Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday (Jan. 20) that the country's economic recovery depends not only on the government's economic measures, but also on political action.

"I think that when we have a crisis; we do not discuss the crisis, we discuss a way out of the crisis. In my opinion, there is no way out to be only economic; if we don't discuss a bit of politics as well, the economy alone does not solve it," said the former president during an interview with bloggers.

According to Lula, the government has to give a signal to the population that is trying to resume growth, "whatever the cost".

"This is necessary. It is necessary because if we do not have the initiative, there is a forecast that GDP could fall more 3% in 2016," he added.

Consumption and investment

Lula suggested stimulate consumption of people with fewer resources to boom the internal market. "If we want to save this country, let's take the poor people to the stage again. Let's see how we can help finance the poor so they can buy some things. For them to go to fight, and go shopping, and I think this is necessary," he said.

The former president also defended that the government should invest in infrastructure, even if it may be burdened with debt. "Put up the Comperj [Rio de Janeiro Petrochemical Complex], the Abreu e Lima Refinery, finish building the railroads that began [to be built]—many are already underway—, finish the highways, build the hydroelectric plants that need to be done, the transmission lines that need to be made, the wind power that need to be done," he listed.

"There is no problem to raise the debt if it is to acquire a new asset to generate new jobs, to generate income, to generate development. There is no problem," he stated.

Lula pointed out that the lowest unemployment rate of the country's history was reached in 2014 by President Dilma Rousseff, and said she has the conditions to make the country recover growth and generate jobs. "She has to know that is her primacy to reach 4.8% [annual unemployment rate] and that she has to recover growth," he said.

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta