Brazil’s Youngest President Takes Office : South America: War on inflation is the new leader’s first priority. He also vows to better the lives of the poor.

Fernando Collor de Mello took the oath of office Thursday as president of Brazil and declared “unconditional” war against inflation, now racing at more than 70% a month.

In his inaugural speech, Collor also said Brazil will open its doors to more foreign investment, but he emphasized that the nation will not sacrifice economic growth to service its $115-billion foreign debt.

Collor, 40, is Brazil’s youngest president ever and its first popularly elected president to take office since 1960. Jose Sarney, who became transitional president in 1985 after 21 years of military rule, passed the green and yellow presidential sash to Collor in the presidential palace Thursday morning.

Earlier, at a swearing-in ceremony in the Congress building, Collor announced his war on inflation.

“The No. 1 goal of my first year of administration is not to contain inflation, it is to wipe it out,” he said. “I will concentrate all energies of the executive branch, I will request all support from Congress, to eradicate (inflation) definitively from the Brazilian economy.”

He added: “The war against inflation will be an unconditional struggle, because it is precisely a fight that conditions everything else: the return of investment, the consolidation of growth, the conquest of better social levels, the strengthening and survival of democracy itself.”

He said measures for the “extermination of the inflationary plague” will include balancing the federal budget by drastically reducing public spending and the size of the government.

He promised to privatize many government-owned corporations, end government subsidies, reduce the issue of currency and control the costs of servicing the government’s $70 billion domestic debt. A package of measures is due today.

Collor reaffirmed his intention to renegotiate the terms of payment on Brazil’s foreign debt, the largest of any Third World country.

“Our proposal for renegotiation of the debt has a fundamental parameter: For us, it is not a matter of seeing how much we can grow after servicing the debt, but rather how much we can pay after guaranteeing our economic growth,” Collor said in his inaugural speech.

He recalled that Brazil’s economy posted high growth rates during the 1970s but “the ‘80s brought a tragic interruption of that process of growth.”

“We must struggle so that the ‘90s restore and accentuate the trajectory of growth,” he said. “One of the main obstacles to that, without doubt, is servicing the debt at current levels.

“In the framework of the parameter that I have defined, I will be open to a frank and fair negotiation with the creditors. I don’t want confrontation.”

Collor said his administration will not harbor “any colonial prejudice against foreign capital. On the contrary, we will once again make Brazil hospitable to it.”

He said private capital, not the government, is best equipped to create wealth and bring economic growth. But he said the government is responsible for making sure wealth is fairly distributed.

In a short speech to a cheering crowd outside the presidential palace, the new president shouted his commitment to bettering the lives of Brazil’s poor majority, “the barefooted ones, those who want social justice in the country.”

“You who suffer today with low salaries, with the lack of education and health care, with the lack of hope, I turn my eyes and my concern toward you,” he said.

The ceremonies were attended by 18 heads of state or government, including Presidents Fidel Castro of Cuba, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez of Spain. The United States was represented by Vice President Dan Quayle. Also present were the presidents of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Venezuela, Bolivia and Peru.