Admiral Julio Soares de Moura Neto—Brazilian Navy
According to our governments budget evaluation, Brazil was one of the last countries to suffer the impact of the global economic crisis of 2008 and one of the first to recover from its consequences.
Naturally, the impact of the crisis on the Brazilian Navy (BN) was the result of budgetary restrictions imposed by the government. In 2008, these did not affect the accomplishment of any BN missions, either in previously announced investments or in the continuation of routine activities.
In 2009, however, there were significant restrictions. Because of decreased tax revenue—about 20 percent across the whole country—the government needed to reduce budgetary allocations to the same level, imposing an adjustment of 23.4 percent for the navy.
Consequently, the Brazilian Navy adjusted its budget planning except for mandatory expenses and those that would jeopardize commitments to law enforcement in Brazilian waters, search-and-rescue operations in maritime areas under Brazilian jurisdiction, and combined exercises with friendly navies and international exchange programs.
Therefore, the navy compensated in future programs and the scheduled maintenance of ships and aircraft. Construction of some ships has been postponed, and plans to acquire others were delayed. Maintenance periods of some ships and aircraft have been extended. Naturally, there was some impact on exercises and operations scheduled for 2009.
The effect of the economic crisis did not last the whole year. At the beginning of the last four months of the year, the government announced that it had been successful in its crisis containment measures and was able to increase the budget to a higher level, but still far from the one initially foreseen. Thus, during the last months of 2009 the Brazilian Navy budget recovered about half of its projected cuts with a year-end loss of 11.2 percent. Consequently, it was possible to reinstate future programs and proceed with scheduled repairs.
Finally, the prospects for 2010 are good for overcoming the effects of the global economic crisis, and the navy's budget should be higher than last year's. As a result, the needs of the National Defense Strategy will be met according to its established timetable.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Click on the "Google Translate" button under the photo box and choose the language into which you would like the section translated.