Brazil's National Bank of Economic and Social Development (BNDES) said on Monday that its credit lines to the country's petrochemical industry had reached 900 million reals (420 million U.S. dollars) in the January-August period.

Gabriel Gomes, petrochemical department manager of the bank, said BNDES would provide a total of 1.6 billion reals (747 million dollars) for the sector in 2006, up almost 100 percent from the 812 million reals (379 million dollars) granted to the sector last year.

BNDES intended to particularly support plants designed to process plastic products, which had created the largest number of jobs in the petrochemical sector, he said.

According to statistics presented by Gomes at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janeiro, the country's petrochemical sector had a combined revenue of 70 billion dollars in 2005.

Brazil's state-owned oil and gas giant Petrobras traditionally had a strong presence in the country's petrochemical sector. But in the first half of the 1990s, the company sold its participation to private groups.

Source: Xinhua