In an interview with Armenian News – NEWS.am, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Brazil to Armenia,  Edson Marinho Duarte Monteiro, told about the recovering of the Armenian-Brazilian trade in 2016, economic difficulties of Brazil and attempts to set its economy aright.

Was a positive progress recorded in the economic cooperation between Armenian and Brazil in 2016?

We have to remember that 2016 was a year when the economies of many countries were still recovering from 2015, when the crisis in places like Russia and China affected our export. And this, of course, also affected our capacity to buy. So, in 2015, the Brazilian export to Armenia, like the export of all countries to Armenia, was greatly reduced.

Trade is a big part of our relations. So, when we saw it go down by more than 40 percent, we were very unhappy. But in 2016, there is a recovery, a very big recovery: instead of reduction, we got a big increase, especially in the sales of sugar, tobacco, some equipment. [It is] Only [the] meat, which has reached the same level, but it[s index] did not fall.

So, what happened in 2016 is the beginning of recovery for Armenia, Brazil and our trade. To me that is the most important fact in terms of geopolitical analytical data and our relationship.

In 2016, something very special happened: In August President [of Armenia Serzh] Sargsyan visited Brazil and during that visit five agreements were signed—one on technical cooperation and another specifically on cooperation in agriculture. The third agreement I would like to mention is the one on cooperation in education.

Will Brazilian President Michel Temer manage to normalize the crisis in the country?  

Let us be fair: President Temer has been in power only since May [2016]. He inherited a very difficult economic situation. In fact, in 2015, Brazil was going through a very deep crisis: the GDP [of the country] went down from $2.6 trillion to $1.7. This is a drop of some $900 billion. The unemployment rate reached 8.5 percent. President Temer and his ministers had to cut the Government expenses. The President adopted a law actually changing the Constitution to establish that for the next 20 years the Government expenses can only be increased to compensate for the inflation. [This initiative of] President Temer passed the support of the strong majority in the Congress.  

He also did change the way Government enterprises function. Brazil has a lot of Government enterprises: Oil is produced by Petrobras, a lot of the electricity is produced by Eletrobras. And, unfortunately, there was some degree of mismanagement: we were spending the money not in the most efficient way. Now there is a new regulation for how these companies are going to run their budget.

We would also like to see increase in investments and create new jobs, but it is not only the Government, but also companies, that do this. There was a little increase in investments in November 2016 but it is not yet enough to compensate for the reduction of investments we had in the previous years.