Brasília, 2/12/2004 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Yesterday president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva once again criticized businessmen who complain about Brazil's high interest rates. Lula said they should be more responsible and avoid jacking up their prices everytime there is an improvement in the economic situation. Lula said he had never been the type of person to cry about difficulties. He always worked to make things happen, rather than moaning about them.

Lula added that it was true that Brazil had high interest rates, but that it was also true that at the moment Brazil's interest rates are the lowest they have been in ten years. A country's key interest rate has to be at a level the government can maintain and support; and it has to be at a level the market will accept, he said.

The problem in the past, said Lula, was that weak governments had to dollarize debt and as a result the country became vulnerable, "more vulnerable than ever before."

The country has to have credibility, which come from a responsible attitude, said the president. "Everyone has to be responsible - the government and everyone in the business community, from the industrial leader to the small shop owner. And if everyone is responsible the economy will grow like it has never grown before."

Lula pointed out another problem: keeping inflation under control. He said a solution for that problem was the cooperative movement, such as the "mixed" cooperative he inaugurated yesterday in Brasilia. (AB)