Spensy Pimentel
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília – As an economic aide to president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Guido Mantega was a member of the PT Economic Coordination Program (Coordenação do Programa Econômico do PT) in the presidential elections of 1989 (the first time Lula ran) and 1998 (the third time Lula ran). In between he worked in the administration of Luiza Erundina (Prefeitura) in São Paulo (1989-1992), Mantega worked directly with the city secretary of Planning, Paul Singer.

Following the 1998 presidential election, Mantega organized a weekly discussion group as part of the activities at the Citizenship Institute (Instituto Cidadania), an NGO set by Lula in São Paulo. In 2001 the institute released a document which anticipated much of the content of the famous "Letter to the Brazilian People" in which Lula, in his fourth presidential campaign, promised to respect contracts and pay off the country's debt.

Mantega was one of the coordinators of the successful 2002 presidential campaign's economic platform.

When Lula took office in January 2003, Mantega became minister of Planning, where he drew up the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project and the Multi-Year Plan (PPA) (2004-2007). In November he moved to the Brazilian Development Bank.

Differently from the man he substitutes, Antonio Palocci, who was a doctor but spent his life in politics, Guido Mantega is an economist and sociologist who followed an academic career and has numerous publications to his credit in economy and sociology, such as "Acumulação Monopolista e Crises no Brasil" (1981), "A Economia Política Brasileira" (1984) and "Sexo e Poder" (1979).

As an economist, Mantega is considered a "developmentalist," a follower of the ideas of Celso Furtado, among others. At the BNDE$S, for example, he worked to reduce the country's long term interest rate (TJLP) which is used as a yardstick for bank loans. One of the most constant complaints about Palocci was the maintance of high interest rates.

Guido Mantega was born in Genova, Italy, and came to Brazil as a child. He has a degree in economics and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of São Paulo. He was a teacher at the Fundação Getulio Vargas, one of Brazil's most prestigious schools of economy.

Translation: Allen Bennett