Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro pledged swift and sweeping measures to fix the economy and ward off what he said was a risk that Latin America's largest nation turns into a Venezuela-style regime.

Plans to sell a large number of state-owned companies are nearly ready, and a proposal to be sent to Congress will bring "substantial" cuts to pension outlays and establish a minimum retirement age, Bolsonaro said on Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland, in an interview with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait. He said the approval of the pension reform investors are eagerly awaiting is practically certain as Brazil's financial situation gives it little choice.

The government expects to raise $20 billion from privatizations this year, Economy Minister Paulo Guedes said in a separate interview with Bloomberg TV in Davos. In addition, reform of the pension system would help slash the budget deficit from around 7 percent of GDP to zero this year.