06/24/2024 – 17:55
In his participation in the event promoted by the FHC Institute to celebrate 30 years of the Real Plan, Rubens Ricupero, minister who replaced Fernando Henrique Cardoso in the Finance portfolio in 1994 and former Brazilian ambassador to Italy throughout 1995, criticized the lack of commitment of politicians to this day with fiscal responsibility.
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“Politicians, starting at the highest levels, do not make a connection between cause and effect. Like the issue of public spending. For them, inflation has nothing to do with public spending, for them it is an independent variable. I confess that the biggest sadness I have is seeing that, of everything that didn’t catch on [do Plano Real] it was fiscal responsibility. It’s the hardest. It’s difficult for the Americans, for the French, the Germans, it’s very difficult, but here, it was abandoned,” he assessed.
Ricupero reinforced that the Real Plan is “an achievement” for Brazil. “Just look at neighboring Argentina. They are where we were 30 years ago, a colossal difference,” he said. And he also took the opportunity, like the other participants, to praise the performance of former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
“FHC is the great figure in this story. The real thing, like every great work, is a collective work, there were many contributions. But some are more durable and fundamental than others. His, without a doubt, was the most important, both from a qualitative and quantitative point of view,” he stated.
The former minister also commented on the performance of the then president at the time of the Plan, Itamar Franco, who he classified as a “complex figure”. “[Itamar] It was both indispensable and the greatest obstacle to the real. But he had a quality, he knew how to listen.”
Regarding the effects of the Real Plan, Ricupero highlighted the “miraculous” profile that dominated the plan, that it “cured all ills”. But the highlight was, of course, the end of hyperinflation. “The Brazilian people have in fact become convinced of the malignancy of inflation. The politicians, I’m not so sure.”
Some of the economists who created the longest-lived currency in Brazilian history were present at the event, such as André Lara Resende, Edmar Bacha, Gustavo Franco, Pedro Malan and Persio Arida. Arminio Fraga participated remotely.
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