Brazil to prioritize social programs in 2012

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said Tuesday the government would prioritize social programs in 2012, a day after the South American country overtook Britain as the world's sixth-largest economy.

The government would "consolidate the Brazilian model" in the coming year, Rousseff wrote in a weekly column published by several local dailies.

"The most important thing is that we ended the year without giving up the fundamental principles for the country: economic growth and wealth distribution. This is the path to prosperity," she said.

The London-based research group Center for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said Monday that the Brazilian gross domestic product (GDP) this year would stand at 2.4 trillion U.S. dollars, after that of the United States, China, Japan, Germany and France, the world's five largest economies.

The Brazilian economy grew 7.5 percent in 2010, but the growth predictions are less than half of that for this year, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said.

The country's exports from January to the end of last week reached a record high of 250.30 billion U.S. dollars, up 24 percent from the same period last year, according to statistics released by Brazil's Development, Industry and Trade Ministry on Monday.

Rousseff also said she was confident about next year as "Brazil will keep on growing with stability and reducing inequality."