Lula and Dilma sign a R$8.5 billion loan from the Brics Bank to BNDES

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) signed this Wednesday (6) the funding contract between the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) and the New Development Bank (NDB, its acronym in English), known as Brics Bank. The NDB will lend US$1.7 billion to the BNDES, around R$8.5 billion. Of this total, US$500 million will be allocated to projects to combat climate change and US$1.2 billion to investments in sustainable infrastructure.

During the event, Lula spoke again about recovering “Brazil’s image abroad” and criticizing the Bolsonaro administration, without mentioning the name of the former president. “Brazil is a country that was effectively forgotten on the international scene. Because whoever was governing this country had no idea what international politics is, what geopolitics is, how important the relationship between countries is. And also because the outside world didn’t want to give a leash to someone who didn’t like democracy. So, I took a lot of trips this year,” said Lula.

The ceremony to make the operation official was held in Rio de Janeiro this afternoon and was attended by the presidents of BNDES, Aloizio Mercadante, and the Brics Bank, Dilma Rousseff. “Today, Brazil has – in these eight months of Lula’s government – already signed and ready to be invested US$ 2.7 billion, which is equivalent to around R$ 10 billion at the current exchange rate”, said the former president of the Republic.

The Senate approved the government’s request to carry out the loan on November 14th. The Presidency of the Republic informed that the Ministry of Finance, the Treasury Secretariat and the Attorney General’s Office of the National Treasury evaluated the request and consider that the bank meets the requirements to carry out the operation.

Lula criticizes IMF and demands agility from BNDES for loans

President Lula questioned the number of BNDES requirements to grant loans. For the agent, these operations must be agile. “I don’t know if it’s still like that, but the amount you [BNDES] it takes time to analyze the loan, the number of hands that pass the loan request… I, honestly, have never seen it, and I have fought with many BNDES presidents, because such a requirement is not possible”, said the PT member.

The president said that “it is not a problem to have a debt” as long as it is to build a productive asset for the country. “Economics is not exact mathematics, we need to work according to the needs of the projects we build and the needs of the people”, he stated.

Lula criticized the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and defended the need to trade with currencies other than the dollar. “We cannot repeat what the international financial system does, we cannot repeat what the IMF does, the IMF does not lend money to save, it lends a rope for people to focus on”, said Lula when citing the debt of the African continent. “Therefore, we will have to learn to trade without needing the dollar as the standard currency,” he added.

The Brics Bank was created in 2014 and its founding countries were Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Later, Bangladesh, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Uruguay were included. Uruguay’s entry into the group is under analysis until the definitive deposit of the instrument of accession.