By Alonso Soto
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian presidential candidate Marina Silva would if elected push for large budget cuts and end a programme supporting the currency in a bid to regain investor trust and revive the economy, a senior economic adviser told Reuters on Thursday.
Alexandre Rands, an economist who helped draft Silva's economic plan, said she would eliminate a central bank currency intervention scheme that has kept the Brazilian real artificially strong for more than a year.
"That does not mean that you cannot carry out small, temporary actions to eliminate volatility," he said in an interview that provided some of the most specific guidance yet about Silva's financial policies.
The real weakened slightly in late trade after Rands' comments were published, traders said.
Since last August, Brazil's central bank has intervened daily in the foreign exchange market by selling currency swaps, derivatives designed to support the real.
Silva, a popular environmentalist, is tied with President Dilma Rousseff in an expected runoff vote in October, according to recent polls.
A Silva government could cut up to 100 billion reais (26.49 billion pounds) in budget spending next year to help lower inflationary pressures, Rands said.
He said the cuts would spare social programs such as the Bolsa Familia welfare system, focusing instead on pork-barrel spending for projects in the districts of lawmakers.
Rands, a U.S.-trained economist, said a Silva administration would also aim to lower the centre of Brazil's official inflation target below the current 4.5 percent.
(Reporting by Alonso Soto; Editing by Diane Craft and Lisa Shumaker)
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