Brazil Ready to Aid Corporates: Meirelles

Brazil plans to support corporate borrowers facing debt rollover problems with a new credit line, says Central Bank president Henrique Meirelles. Meirelles expects some 4,000 Brazilian companies to need around $20bn from the special credit line, set to launch at the end of this month. The bank will tap its reserves for the loans, available to any domestic firms with foreign debt maturing until the end of 2009. Meirelles declines to opine when asked about rates and GDP growth, but says he expects Brazil to see “a deceleration on a smaller scale,” than the global average, owed mainly to strong domestic demand. He was speaking at a Brazilian Chamber of Commerce event in New York.