Guido Mantega, Brazil’s finance minister, spoke with Jonathan Wheatley, the FT’s Brazil correspondent, in Mr Mantega’s office in Brasília on Wednesday December 5.

FINANCIAL TIMES: There has been much talk of a change in direction by the Brazilian government. The president said recently that the period of belt-tightening was over and it was time to deliver better services by hiring more people. Brazil’s has been described as the model of a modern left-wing government, where macroeconomic stability is maintained while the state sector takes the lead in pushing development. Is that fair?