Brazil-Government go to the aid of the meat industry.

BRAZIL-GOVERNMENT SUPPORTING MEAT INDUSTRY.

Brazil’s government will offer 10 billion Brazilian

reals in credit through its BNDES National Development Bank to support

activities in agribusiness, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said Thursday.

Mantega said the funds would go mostly to support the country’s ailing

meatpacking sector and would be offered at an interest rate of 11.25% annually.

The measure, the latest of a series of government initiatives to boost local

credit circulation, was approved Thursday in an extraordinary meeting of the

National Monetary Council.

Brazil ’s meatpacking industry has been particularly hard hit by falling demand during a slowdown of the global economy.