Lula da Silva boasts Brazil now advises the IMF

5th Wednesday, August 2009 - 12:39 UTC Full article

In his daily column the Brazilian president said the country is rapidly recovering from the global crisis.

President Lula da Silva said that Brazil is climbing out, and strengthened, from the deep global financial crisis and underlined that “Brazil is now advising the International Monetary Fund, IMF”.

“For a long time Brazil was an IMF debtor, and obeyed as a child…orders from its technicians… But today we are telling the IMF what they have to do and not the other way round”, said Lula da Silva in his weekly column published in several Brazilian dailies.

Lula da Silva said that in spite of the serious economic crisis, Brazil can lend the IMF 10 billion US dollars without harming “our level of international reserves”.

“Our condition is that the funds are used to aid the economies of the poorest and developing countries. It’s not only humanitarian. Today, no country is an island, no country can live exclusively by its own means”, he added.

Lula da Silva pointed out that Brazil managed to resist in good conditions the global turbulences although admitting that “while the rest of the countries can’t emerge from the crisis, we will not be entirely sure, because we depend on the good economic health of all countries to normalize levels of international trade”.

However while other countries still confront the crisis, “we are climbing out strengthened in advantageous conditions, with greater negotiation power in diplomatic and commercial relations”.