Sao Paulo (EFE) .
“The healthier and more educated the population is, the more the economy will grow,” Lula declared in the framework of the inauguration of a new building for the ABC Federal University, an institution located in the working-class neighborhoods where he himself grew up union politics.
According to the president, “there is no country that has developed without investing in the education and health” of the population, despite the fact that in Brazil “the elite” always considered that the money allocated to these areas is “an expense.”
Lula’s criticism of the Central Bank
Lula took advantage of the act to once again criticize the high-interest policies of the Central Bank, an institution that has independence for its decisions and maintains the reference rates at a high 13.7% per year, which according to the Government contains economic activity and supposes an obstacle to investment and growth.
“Expenditure is not education and health. Expense is paying 13.7% interest to the financial system, ”she emphasized.
The president recalled that this university was born during the first of the two consecutive terms that he held between 2003 and 2010 and considered it a “historic debt” to the workers.
“This is the most industrialized region of Brazil, with a large working class, and it did not have a university” due to the “disinterest of the elite”, declared Lula, who said he was “proud” that, in this institution, they graduated in In recent years, many of the children of his “militant partners” in the labor unions.