May 5, 2011

Eike Batista on Brazil's new president Dilma Rousseff

Listen, thanks [sic] God we have Dilma [Rousseff] running our country because she wants to, President Lula's legacy was to keep inflation under control because during his 8 years, the Brazilian worker had a 40% increase in his purchasing power. So, inflation control was crucial because before I know inflation eroded the purchasing power of the Brazilian worker.

She will preserve this legacy of keeping inflation rates under control, that's why interest rates are 13%. So, we are a country where inflation is demand-driven. The reason we increase interest rates, use nominal monetary tools, is unique in the world, we are a demand-driven economy. She has to cool it down, cool it down, with high interest because there are bottlenecks in infrastructure so after maybe, 3 years from now, we can go above 5 or 6% [inflation] again if we de-bottleneck the country.

~Eike Batista, chairman and CEO, EBX Group, CNBC interview, May 4, 2011

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