Meirelles promises tiny GDP growth. And only at the end of the year.

CAMPOS DE JORDÃO, São Paulo (Reuters) - The Brazilian economy is expected to close 2017 growing at an annualized rate of 2 percent, reflecting several sectoral data that indicate that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has regained traction in recent months, Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles said on Saturday.

"The economic recovery will surprise many," Meirelles stated during the 8th International Congress of Financial and Capital Markets.

Citing recent data from various industry sectors, in addition to the resumption of net job creation, Meirelles also mentioned the deleveraging process of companies as factors that support the view that the country is emerging from the biggest recession in its history.

"The economy is returning to normal," the minister said during a lecture.

Meirelles also listed a series of government initiatives, including laws and projects that are in the National Congress, aimed at making the economy more efficient and reducing bureaucracy, in addition to the expected effects of measures already approved, such as labor reform, which should give traction to the movement.

The minister predicted, for example, that the combination of labor reform and the outsourcing law should create around 6 million jobs within three to five years.

SOCIAL SECURITY

Meirelles reaffirmed his confidence that the pension reform bill currently in Congress will be approved this year without major changes.

"The chance of the pension reform being approved is real," he said.

The statement contradicts what Senator Ronaldo Caiado (DEM-GO) stated earlier at the same event, that President Michel Temer's government no longer has the political energy to approve the project, which should therefore be postponed until 2019, after next year's elections.

According to Meirelles, approving the pension reform is in the interest of all parties, since it will have to be done anyway and no one will want to assume the political weight of that magnitude right after the election.

According to the minister, the approval of the entire proposed reform package will help the country enter a prolonged cycle of growth, with GDP per capita rising at an average annual rate of 3,1 percent over the next 10 years.

ELECTROBRAS 

Meirelles also expressed optimism regarding the implementation of the privatization and concession package announced by the Temer government this week.

"It is feasible to complete this package by the end of 2018," he later told reporters.

The main asset in this package, Eletrobras, will have an impact as significant as, or even more significant than, the privatization of the Brazilian telecommunications system in the 1990s, Meirelles said.