Lula discusses poverty with IMF director – 03/04/2024 – Market

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) received this Monday (4) the general director of the IMF (International Monetary Fund), Kristalina Georgieva, in a meeting at Palácio do Planalto.

The president said after the meeting that he discussed with the leader the reform of the institution, to increase representation within the body, and also ways to reduce poverty in the world.

“Good conversation with the director general of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, about development with social inclusion and the resumption of poverty reduction in the world. We also talked about the necessary reform of the IMF, so that we have an International Monetary Fund that is more representative of the current world and capable to help countries that need to resort to the IMF in better conditions”, wrote the Brazilian president, on a social network.

The Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, and the president of the Brics Bank, Dilma Rousseff, also participated in the meeting.

Haddad only stated that the meeting was “basically about international financing, about Brazil’s support for the IMF, about quota alignment, that kind of thing.”

For much of the year, President Lula said he wanted to meet with Georgieva to demand incorrect IMF projections about the growth of the Brazilian economy.

In an interview in December, Lula stated his desire to meet with the director general of the IMF, during COP 28, to show that the organization’s predictions were wrong.

The GDP (Gross Domestic Product), released on Friday (1st) showed that the Brazilian economy grew 2.9% in 2023. The IMF’s initial forecasts, at the beginning of last year, indicated an increase of less than 1%, but revisions over the months gradually increased this percentage.

After the meeting, Kristalina Georgieva did not give an interview, but left making little hearts with her hands for the journalists.

Lula then received the president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Chinese Jin Liqun. The director stated that the institution intends to increase the resources invested in Brazil, but that it is now waiting for “good projects”.

He also stated that the bank’s participation is currently only in three projects, totaling US$350 million. He also said that one of the bank’s preferences is with projects linked to “connection with the West”, in reference to infrastructure projects that connect Brazil to the Pacific Ocean.

“This is a wonderful opportunity to better understand the government’s economic development agenda, and we promise to undertake broadly defined projects such as infrastructure, roads, railways, airports, seaports, renewable energy, transmission and everything that is important to the country,” said the Chinese.

“As for financing, we have already said that Brazil is one of the most important and prominent members of Asia and we are ready to provide a large amount of resources to your country. So far, we are adequately capitalized and have no capital constraints. Since As long as we have good projects, we will provide financing. We want large-scale projects”, he added.