Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff celebrates during news conference after disclosure of the election results, in Brasilia Oct. 26, 2014.UESLEI MARCELINO/Reuters
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will have to quickly appoint a new finance minister from outside her party to show she is ready to scrap policies that fuelled inflation and slowed growth, political analyst Andre Cesar said last night.
"She has to give a clear and rapid signal," Cesar, an independent political consultant, said by phone from Brasilia following the vote. "There's not much time."
Rousseff said in September she would replace Finance Minister Guido Mantega in a second four-year term, which she won yesterday. Rousseff vowed in her victory speech to take "urgent actions" to boost economic growth and to fight inflation with "rigor."
Since Rousseff announced she would appoint a new finance minister, local media and investors have speculated on a roster of names, including her current chief of staff Aloizio Mercadante, Coteminas Chief Executive Officer Josue Gomes, BRF SA Chairman Abilio Diniz and her former deputy Finance Minister Nelson Barbosa. Markets have continued to fall as those names have circulated.
An exchange-traded fund investing in Brazilian equities plunged the most in three years in Tokyo after Rousseff won re- election, underscoring investors skepticism about a change in policies.
The NEXT FUNDS Ibovespa Linked ETF dropped as much as 8.4 percent by 11:39 a.m. in Tokyo. Brazil's benchmark equity gauge, which has rallied 16 percent from this year's low in March amid bets that Rousseff would be ousted by Senator Aecio Neves, may tumble as much as 10 percent when trading opens today in Sao Paulo, according to Leme Investimentos.
"The choice of names will be the main driver of markets," said Jose Francisco de Lima Goncalves, chief economist at Banco Fator.