President Dilma Rousseff has said recently that Brazilians can expect a 2012 with more income, jobs, opportunities and growth for the country.

“We’ll have to work hard, but the year began with good news: the increase of the minimum wage,” said Rousseff in her usual Monday radio program with the President, in which she talked about a series of economic measures that came into effect this month.

Noting that the minimum wage rose from 545 to 622 reales (about 300 to 340 dollars), the president stressed the importance of that measure because families can consume more and live better.

With this, they will create more demand for our industry, trade and services sector, keeping the dynamism and the wheels of our economy turning for Brazil to continue to grow, she said.

She explained that in total about 40 million Brazilians benefitted from that measure, of whom about 20 million are employees earning a minimum wage per month and the others are an equal number of pensioners.

The president also referred to other actions such as the readjustment of the income tax rate for individuals and greater facilities for micro and small enterprises as well as for individual micro-entrepreneurs.

The re-adjustment, said Rousseff, will benefit 25 million taxpayers and 800,000 shall be exempt from paying income tax.

“We are very proud to be the sixth largest economy in the world, but our goal is to ensure Brazilians more income and more jobs,” stressed Rousseff.