Brasília, December 6, 2002 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - At a meeting of heads of state and government held at the Itamaraty Palace, president Fernando Henrique Cardoso called for the creation of a single Mercosur currency and investments by each country for the bloc itself to provide financing. He said that the velocity of foreign capital is very great. He commented that Brazil received funds on the order of US$ 36 billion from the IMF and the World Bank. In his view, in the past this was a signal to calm the market in Brazil. The relationship as it exists now was based on confidence, he recalled.

Cardoso affirmed that Argentina did not receive this volume of resources and there was not so much agitation on the market. According to Cardoso, the BNDES (National Economic and Social Development Bank) has investments far superior to the World Bank's and "if we complain about investments here, imagine what the world is like." The president said that these comments were made to emphasize that the international financial market has rules that are 60 years old. (DAS)