OREANDA-NEWS. On Thursday and Friday, May 9 and 10, 2013, the 3rd Global Conference on Business Cycles is taking place in Rio de Janeiro. The event is organized by Vale in partnership with the Getulio Vargas Foundation Graduate School of Economics (EPGE/FGV). The lecturers are finance and economics experts, executives, and professors of renowned universities, such as Nobel Prize winners Edward Prescott and Chris Sims. About 150 participants were present in the audience, from students and academics to business people, economists and market players.

Vale's Financial and Investor Relations Executive Director, Luciano Siani, opened the event and talked about the global economic scenario. “The crisis, which started in 2008, left us with the impression that economic stagnation is going to last forever. But sometimes we forget that the business universe is cyclical: it’s always alternating between periods of ups and downs, which is a relevant fact for the commodities sector,” he stated.

The opportunity to watch a debate with professors from the best universities in the world, such as Princeton, Cornell and UCLA, attracted many different people, who filled the FGV auditorium. By the first day of the event, it was necessary to install a large screen outside of the auditorium, allowing for a larger audience to follow the debate. Among the subjects discussed were current topics such as recovery of economic prosperity in the United States, recessions and recoveries in the global economy, fiscal reform in Japan, as well as critical mining issues such as commodity prices and global business cycles.

Eduardo Araujo, an economist and researcher from the Getulio Vargas Foundation, highlighted the importance of such events in order to understand market trends. “In Economic Sciences, there should not be a separation between what we research and the reality of business numbers. This integration is very important,” he said. According to Economics student Bruno Acquarone, debates about the application of the contents learned within the classroom, especially in light of great companies like Vale, help to better understand the direction in which we are heading.

Vale's Investor Relations Director, Roberto Castello Branco, states that the interaction between the corporate and the academic world is highly productive. “Mining is a business whose results are strongly influenced by the economic cycles. Understanding these better contributes to the improvement of the quality of our decision-making process. It is very useful for us and for companies to support academic research and promote this kind of discussion," he said. The Investor Relations area is responsible for organizing the annual event in partnership with EPGE/FGV.