Brazilian economy will only grow again in 2020, say businessmen

Brazil's business sector no longer believes that the country will grow again in 2019. According to José Carlos Martins, president of (CBIC (Brazilian Chamber of Construction Industry, in Portuguese, Câmara Brasileira da Indústria da Construção), the confrontations between the president of the Republic Jair Bolsonaro and the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Rodrigo Maia, are bad for the economy. According to Martins, "people take their foot off the accelerator, not to say they put their foot on the brake."

According to the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), the General Price Index - Market (IGP-M) increased 0.01% in January, a percentage higher than the one reached in December, when it varied -1.08%. As a result, the index accumulated a high of 6.74% in 12 months.

Meanwhile, the lack of capacity of Brazilian companies in the chemical sector, according to Fernando Figueiredo, chief executive of Abiquim (Brazilian Chemical Industry Association), stood at 23%. Simultaneously, the average idleness of Brazilian industry is 26%, according to FGV.

As the Brazilian economy continues to operate with a high level of idleness, the tendency is to maintain the high unemployment rate.

As the Brazilian economy continues to operate with a high rate of idleness, the tendency is the permanence of the high rate of unemployment in the country. Due to this environment of economic deceleration, the number of Brazilians without work reached a new record: 65 million people.

These 65 million are people of working age, but who are not working or looking for work. These are people who, after months of searching and frustration, give up looking for work.

Dollar reaches R$ 4.00 and scares Brazilian economists

A public discussion between the President of the Republic Jair Bolsonaro and the president of the Chamber of Deputies Rodrigo Maia made the financial market nervous this week.

Yesterday, March 28, the tourism dollar reached R$ 4.20 and euro at R$ 4.70. As a result, the day was turbulent in the Brazilian financial market.

Today, March 29, the commercial dollar opened the session with a fall of 0.84%, being traded at R $ 3.8830 for sale and R $ 3.8810 for purchase.

To make matters worse, unemployment continues high despite improvements in recent months. In the quarter ended in February, the unemployment rate in Brazil was 12.4%, according to data from the National Survey for Continuous Household Sample (Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios Contínua - PNAD) published today by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). In the same period in 2018, the unemployment rate measured by PNAD was 12.6%.

According to Eduardo Moreira (former partner of Banco Pactual), there is a fugue of investors from  Brazil. For Moreira, a critic of the Bolsonaro administration, the first three months of government did not present any type of project and indicated a fragility in the president's capacity for articulation with the National Congress.

Cost of living in Brazil: beans and potatoes

The rice and beans dish is a combination consumed daily by Brazilians. This dish is now more expensive because beans are now more expensive.

According to the Broad Consumer Price Index (Índice Nacional de Preços ao Consumidor Amplo 15 - IPCA-15), the price of this basic item, which had already registered a 34.56% increase in February, rose 41.44% in March.

This was one of the reasons for the IPCA-E, which is the IPCA-15 accumulated quarterly, to be 1.18%, above the rate of 0.87% registered in the same period of 2018.

Another item that also had a price increase was the potato. The kilo of this product rose 12.39% in February and 25.59% in March.

As a result, previous official inflation in March (IPCA-15) showed a 0.54% increase in prices in relation to the previous month

Former president of Brazil, Michel Temer, is arrested

The Operation Lava Jato of the Federal Police arrested today the ex-president Michel Temer and the ex-minister Moreira Franco. Both are accused of involvement in corruption schemes. In an interview with the journalist Kennedy Alencar, Temer classified his prison as "a barbarity."

The arrest was based on the donation of José Antunes Sobrinho, owner of Engevix. The businessman told the Federal Police that he paid R $ 1 million in tips at the request of Colonel João Baptista Lima Filho, who would have received the bribes for the political group of former president Michel Temer.

Engevix was one of the construction companies responsible for the construction of the Angra 3 atomic power plant, located on Itaorna beach, in Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro.

Cost of living in Brazil in 2019

Inflation has rebounded in Brazil. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), official inflation accelerated to 0.43% in February 2019.

High food prices and school fees were the main factors for the month's high. In 12 months, the accumulated IPCA (National Wide Consumer Price Index) rose to 3.89%. Despite this rise in prices, inflation is below the government's target for 2019: 4.25%.

According to Fábio Romão, an economist at LCA Consultores, fuel prices are expected to pull up in inflation now in March.

The constant crisis produced by the current government and the possible difficulty to approve a profound Pension Reform may make a more moderate inflation picture unlikely.