Updated 05:49 AM EDT, Fri, Mar 29, 2024

Brazil Finance Minister Joaquim Levy Resigns Due to Disagreements with President Dilma Rousseff

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Brazil's Finance Minister, Joaquim Levy, has decided to leave his post following disagreements with the president and the Worker's Party over his austerity policies.

In a report by the BBC, Levy is being replaced by current Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's close ally, the current Planning Minister, Nelson Barbosa, during the Latin American Nation's worst recession in 25 years.

In a statement, Levy said that he is confident that the economy will recover in 2016. He wrote, "Time will show that we will reap the results of all that has been done this year, putting the Brazilian economy back on track."

BBC also noted that the Brazilian economy shrank by 1.7 percent in the third quarter of the year, as opposed to its second quarter. That being said, the economy is noted to be 4.5 percent smaller than it was a year ago, and with inflation also on the rise, its annual rate hit 10% in November.

Levy's resignation from his post is noted as a huge blow for those advocating for tougher budgets and limited austerity in order for Brazil to survive in the worsening economic crisis, as his attempts to tighten government budgets have been repeatedly blocked by the Worker's Party in congress, said respondent Wyre Davis, from Rio de Janeiro.

Nicknamed "Scissorhands," Fox News Latino noted that Levy is known for being a champion about his belt-tightening measures regarding the country's finances, and has clashed frequently with Rousseff over these very issues. In his own statement, Levy wrote, "I come to the end of 2015 worrying about the situation of the country, particularly the economy. But I keep great confidence in our economy's ability to recover and its potential to grow."

However, much like Levy's cause, the new minister noted that he will keep a tight fist over public spending, saying that "If we control government spending we will manage to control public debt and we will eventually be able to reduce public debt." He also added that "Inflation is expected to begin falling next year."

This issue comes in the middle of a serious political crisis in Brazil, as earlier this month, Speaker of the Lower House of Congress Eduardo Cunha has agreed to begin impeachment proceedings against Rousseff for the alleged irregularities in the management of the government's budget last year.

However, with the Supreme Court scrapping a commission that will supposedly help with the impeachment proceedings, it seems that Rousseff has an important victory at this point, as the ruling means that the proceedings already initiated will be scrapped, and the investigation will have to start from scratch.

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