BRASïLIA: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff named pro-market bank executive Joaquim Levy to be her new finance minister Thursday as her government looks to steer the economy out of recession.
Levy, a University of Chicago-trained economist, is a popular choice in the financial world, where Rousseff's management of the world's seventh-largest economy has been widely attacked.
At a press conference where the president's new economic team was announced -- with central bank chief Alexandre Tombini keeping his job and economist Nelson Barbosa taking over the planning ministry -- Levy vowed to whip the government's books into shape by boosting the primary surplus.
"We're going to work with a primary surplus target of 1.2 percent of GDP in 2015, while for 2016 and 2017 the (target) will be no less than two percent," he said.
"This target is fundamental to reactivate growth."
A primary surplus means the government is spending less than its overall revenue, excluding interest payments on its debt.
Brazil formerly hewed to a target of 3.1 percent of GDP, but that was slashed to 1.9 percent in 2013. As of September, the government had only saved 0.61 percent of GDP this year.
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