The budget head in Madrid, Carlos Oca?a, insists he can bend wills by refusing permission to take on extra long-term loans.

Mr Coutinho, the BNDES's President, hopes that in due course the private Banks will start to provide long-term loans again.

Banks are supposed to make money by skillfully managing the risk of transforming short-term debt into long-term loans; instead, they were undone by it.