Brazil and Minister Joaquim Levy

Minister Joaquim Levy: In a letter sent today to participants at JPMorgan Chase Co.s Brazil Opportunities Conference in Sao Paulo, Rousseff said the economy was passing through a moment of transition fueled by lower commodity prices. While defending her governments performance in lowering unemployment, Rousseff said her economic team, including incoming Finance Minister Joaquim Levy, would introduce measures gradually to bolster growth, according to Bloomberg. Brazil is forecast by economists to grow at the slowest pace since 2009 after emerging from recession in the first half of the year. Inflation hovering near the central banks 6.5 percent ceiling will be an early challenge for Levy as Brazil seeks to avoid losing its investment grade rating. The central bank raised the benchmark rate 25 basis points to 11.25 percent on Oct. 29. Policy makers wind up their last two-day meeting of 2014 tomorrow. Outlook Lowered Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff vowed her second term would be marked by faster growth and rigorous control of inflation after saying Latin Americas biggest economy underperformed this year. We ve managed to keep inflation within the government-set target range while sustaining a low rate of unemployment, Rousseff said in the letter. The new economic team will work on measures to improve gradually, yet structurally, the countrys primary surplus to stabilize and then reduce the gross debt of the public sector in relation to GDP. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.