Brazilian finance minister vows to reduce public deficit

Brazilian Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles said Monday that he will release his first fiscal adjustment measures on Tuesday to reduce Brazil's public deficit.

In a speech in Sao Paulo, Meirelles said that "it is very important to improve growth ... we need to bring confidence back to families and businessmen to restart production, sales and employment."

He said that his main challenge was to identify the source of the country's economic problems as recession continues to hit.

"Our focus must now be on diagnosis, we must see the true size of the problem and find solutions," said the former central bank president, who became the country's new finance minister on May 12 as part of Michel Temer's interim government.

The Brazilian economy is undergoing a profound recession, with its GDP growth having contracted by 3.8 percent in 2015 and is expecting a similar-size shrink this year.

This recession has also seen the unemployment rate rise above 10 percent, as the per capita income fell, inflation exacerbated, and interest rates stood at 14.25 percent, the highest in 10 years.

In his speech, Meirelles admitted that "the state of public finances is serious."p However, the finance minister said that he was hopeful that the new government could improve the economy, noting that the Brazilians are living through "extremely positive moments."

"A solution must be found, we also have a lot of potential. We must take efficient actions, as we all agree we cannot fail," he said. Endi