Brasília, November 15, 2002 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The International Monetary Fund (FMI) mission which is in Brazil, had a meeting yesterday with the minister of Social Security, José Cechin. Lorenzo Perez, a deputy director for the Western Hemisphere, declared that "it is still necessary to do more to reduce the social security deficit." He said changes made in the system have kept the deficit at 1% to 2%, but that there is room for improvement.

Perez also announced that the mission head, Jorge Marquez-Ruarte, would be making a statement about an evaluation of the IMF-Brazil standby loan of US$30 billion. (AB)