BRASÍLIA: Brazil's acting president Michel Temer vowed Friday to get Latin America's largest economy back on track after a cascade of crises put an end to 13 years of leftist rule.
Temer presided over the first meeting of his new business-friendly cabinet, setting out its priorities: creating a leaner government, balancing finances to address a crippling recession, and rooting out the corruption that a huge judicial probe has uncovered at the highest levels of Brazilian politics and business.
"I want to get the country back on the rails," Temer told weekly magazine Epoca in his first interview as president after taking over from suspended predecessor Dilma Rousseff, who faces an impeachment trial in the Senate.
Temer's chief of staff, Eliseu Padilha, said the new government faced a challenging to-do list.
"We're living through the worst economic crisis in the history of Brazil," he told a press conference.
The solution, he said, is "out with corruption and in with efficiency."
Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles, the man tasked with restoring confidence in Brazil's economy, said his priority would be cutting spending.
He pledged not to cut the popular social programs launched under the sidelined Workers' Party (PT) -- initiatives credited with helping lift tens of millions of people out of poverty -- as long as beneficiaries really need them.
But he warned: "Maintaining a social program doesn't mean maintaining the misuse of a social program."
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