 "Brazil's finance minister Nelson Barbosa takes over amid confidence crisis")
Economist Nelson Barbosa has taken over as Brazil's new finance minister amid fears he will bring back high spending policies to boost the popularity of embattled President Dilma Rousseff.
But he immediately promised to maintain fiscal efforts and make the country's economy grow again in 2016, despite predictions of another year of recession.
He told foreign investors yesterday in a conference call that Brazil would also try reform the pension system. Later in the day, Rousseff told Barbosa in a ceremony at the presidential palace that he should do "whatever it takes" to make the economy grow again.
Brazil's central bank expects the country's economy to dip by at least 3% this year. A lack of confidence in Barbosa made Sao Paulo stock market fall 1.62%.
