Brasília, 9/2/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - As of now, small businesses will be classified as income redistribution instruments in the effort to achieve social inclusion, says minister of Labor, Jacques Wagner.

The minister made the announcement at the inauguration of a new program, Friendly Credit (Crediamigo), a micro-financing project run by the Northeast Bank (Banco do Nordeste do Brasil)(BNB). The project uses funding from the Workers Assistance Fund (Fundo de Amparo do Trabalhador) (FAT), and will provide loans of up to R$500, at interest rates of 2% per month.

Wagner declared that the objective of the project is to make access to credit more democratic, while achieving both social inclusion and income redistribution through small business endeavors. (AB)