10/21/2008 15h32
Harvest and house building will have more credit
O Estado de S. Paulo 10/21/2008
Finance Minister Guido Mantega, and the president of the Central Bank (BC) Henrique Meirelles, anticipated new measure to supply the Brazilian credit market yesterday. The actions, which involve numbers amounting R$ 6.5 billion (US$ 2.95 billion), will specially benefit the sectors of agriculture and house building, but also aim to guarantee bigger access of companies and consumers to money. The measures were defined in a meeting was summoned by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, yesterday, in the office of the presidency of the Republic in São Paulo. Besides Mantega and Meirelles, the presidents of the Federal Savings Bank (Caixa), Maria Fernanda Coelho; of the Banco do Brasil bank, Antonio Francisco Lima Neto; of the Economic and Social National Development Bank (BNDES), Luciano Coutinho; and the vice-president of the BNDES, Armando Mariante, participated in the meeting. Next to Meirelles, Mantega explained that the government should expand credit for agriculture by nearly R$ 2.5 billion (US$ 1.14 billion). The funds will be originated from the increase of the portion of the rural saving that will be directed to agriculture, from 65% to 75%. According to the minister, the measure may be announced by the National Monetary Council (CMN) today. However, he remarked that the CMN first needs to create a resolution and then approve it. The minister remembered that, in the last two weeks, the Banco do Brasil bank has already released nearly R$ 10 billion (US$ 4.56 billion) to the agribusiness sector. "So, I do not see a reason for a reduction in the 2008/2009 harvest. It is clear that there may be some climatic factors or some credit deficiency that we have not identified yet." Another sector that should receive special treatment is house building. In the last years, companies have capitalized by the launching of shares in the stock market, established long term investment plans, and used the money in the purchase of lands, said Mantega. Now, they can not get working capital to develop the projects. We are making a system to have such credit, which should amount to R$ 3 billion (US$ 1.36 billion) to R$ 4 billion (US$ 1.82 billion) to complete the works", said Mantega. He emphasized that this credit may be granted through BNDES, which has already presented a proposal to the sector, or Caixa, through share participation in the companies. "One of the two measures will be taken in the next days." Meirelles completed that, during the meeting, a review of all the state banks' actions in the purchase of other banks' portfolios and in credit concession was made. The institutions were called to get ready to increase their participation in the loans and financings in the Country, whether for individuals, working capital for companies and investments.
