President reiterates commitment to fiscal stability, social inclusion

Speaking to journalists on Thursday, January 30, at Planalto Palace, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva highlighted his government’s fiscal responsibility commitments and continued focus on investment, economic growth, job creation and social inclusion.

We will continue to grow. Inclusion policies will continue to be strengthened. The payroll will continue to increase. The minimum wage will continue to be adjusted above inflation — and this will not affect fiscal stability”

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of the Republic

“We will continue to grow. Social inclusion policies will continue to be strengthened. The payroll will continue to increase, and the minimum wage will continue to be adjusted above inflation. All this without creating any fiscal responsibility problems", said Lula.

The President added, “it makes me sad that certain people or sectors sometimes want to dominate public opinion. You know how much trouble we had with people talking about the fiscal deficit. And what happened? 0.1%, not the 2.5% we were left with. This is how it will be, because I feel a lot of responsibility regarding this country.”

The President also argued that the priority in public spending is to preserve vulnerable populations, generally those who most suffer during financial instability.

“You have also heard me say it over and over again. My mother did not know how to read, my mother did not know how to differentiate an O from an R, but she knew how to count money. So we would get home, to her eight children, each one with their envelope of money, and she would take those envelopes, put them all together, count how much she had, get the bills we owed, and say: this is to pay this, this is to pay that. That is how I govern this country. We cannot spend more than we can collect.”

GROWTH - Lula highlighted indicators of economic strength and improving conditions nationwide, such as GDP growth of over 3% over the first two years of government, and national industrial recovery, driven by federal investment. As an example of the recovery of strategic sectors, he cited the auto industry. “Does anyone remember what the auto industry was like in 2023? When I left the government, in 2010, there were 3.8 million cars [produced per year]. Fifteen years later, this dropped to 1.6 million. Now it is back to 2.6 million. I am not going to discuss what half a dozen people want. We want fiscal responsibility and we want to have the smallest possible deficit, because we want this country to succeed. I want job creation, income generation and to build a middle-class country — and that is what we are going to do.”