Brasília, 12/5/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - "High interest rates are a thing of the past - we are now on the road to growth," declared the president of the Central Bank, Henrique Meirelles, after a meeting with the leader of the government in the Congress, senator Aloizio Mercandante (PT-SP). Meirelles and Mercandante met for over an hour to set up "joint strategies to guarantee the sustainability of renewed growth."

Among the strategies is a new bankruptcy law, now in the Senate, that has been approved by the Chamber of Deputies. That law, said Mercandante, will make corporate banking operations safe and make it possible to reduce the bank spread. (AB)