BRASIL: Lula Announces $878 Billion Infrastructure Plan.

BLOOMBERG/     Hoping to energize Dilma Rousseff's lagging campaign to succeed him, President Lula da Silva has launched a massive $878 billion infrastructure upgrade with $530 billion earmarked for between 2011 and 2014. Rousseff is trailing behind Sao Paulo Governor Jose Serra in recent opinion polls.
“This is a purely political move,” said political consultant Bolivar Lamounier. “I believe the government conducted researches to assess the political gains this announcement could bring or it wouldn’t have announced it with such pomp.”