text: Not long after the start of his second term, in 2007 Lula's government announced the Growth Acceleration Program (, PAC), an investment program which sought to solve many of the problems that prevented the Brazilian economy from expanding more rapidly. The measures included investment in the creation and repair of roads and railways, simplification and reduction of taxation, and modernization of the country's energy production to avoid further shortages. The money pledged to be spent on this program was to be around R$ 500 billion (US $ billion) over four years. However, by 2010 many projects remained mired in bureaucracy, and only 11% of the projects outlined in the plan had been completed, while just over half had not even been launched.
  Prior to taking office, Lula had been a critic of privatization. His administration created public-private partnership concessions for seven federal roadways. After decades with the largest foreign debt among emerging economies, Brazil became a net creditor for the first time in January 2008. By mid-2008, both Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's had elevated the classification of Brazilian debt from speculative to investment grade. Banks made record profits under Lula's government.
  The crash of Wall Street in 2008 might have been a tsunami in the US and Europe, Lula declared, but in Brazil it would be no more than a little 'ripple' (""). The phrase was seized on by the Brazilian press as proof of Lula's reckless economic ignorance and irresponsibility. In 2008, Brazil enjoyed economic good health to fight the global financial crisis with a large economic stimulus lasting, at least, until 2014. According to The Washington Post: "Under Lula, Brazil became the world's eighth-largest economy, [and] more than 20 million people rose out of acute poverty ..."