UPDATE 1-Brazil says to unveil new steps to ensure growth

Thu Dec 4, 2008 2:43pm EST
(Recasts, adds Rousseff comments, context)
BRASILIA, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Brazil's government plans to soon unveil new measures to cushion the blow of the global economic downturn on Latin America's largest economy and will take steps to prevent a spike in unemployment, two top officials said on Thursday.
The comments come the same week that mining giant Vale (VALE5.SA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)(RIO.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) cut 1,300 jobs and Volvo (VOLVb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world's number two truck maker, laid off 430 workers at its truck plant in the southern city of Curitiba.
"We will continue to generate jobs and to take measures to prevent the economy from stalling," Finance Minister Guido Mantega told reporters in Brasilia.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's chief of staff, Dilma Rousseff, earlier said the government would do all in its power to avoid rising unemployment.
"This is a key issue for the government, not to allow a fall in employment which will compromise all that we've achieved until now," she told reporters before meeting with union leaders in Brasilia, the capital.
Latin America's largest economy has grown at a rapid pace in recent years but there are now signs that it is being hurt by the global financial crisis.
Brazil's government has taken a series of measures in recent months to help limit the impact of the crisis.
The country's central bank has increased credit lines to sectors that have been badly affected by the liquidity squeeze and has intervened regularly in the foreign exchange market to limit the fall of the local currency.
But with with industrial production slumping, bank lending contracting and business confidence at its lowest in more than three years, the government is under pressure to do more to shore up the economy especially since governments in Europe and the United States have already announced their own economic stimulus packages.
(Reporting by Isabel Versiani and Fernando Exman; Writing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)