After cutting the basic interest rate from 6.5% to 6% per year, Selic, by Copom, the Brazilian Central Bank takes a more "dovish" stance

The Monetary Policy Committee (Copom) of the Brazilian Central Bank reduced from 6.5% to 6% per year the basic interest rate, the Selic rate. The cut aims to increase the possibility of further economic growth in Brazil.

According to bank XP, the ruling shows that the central bank has taken a more "dovish" stance, that is, more lenient about inflation.

For professor Paulo Feldmann, from USP's School of Economics, Administration, and Accounting (FEA), “average income has fallen a lot, 1.3% a year ago. If we consider that in this period there was inflation around 5%, the fall in average income is even greater, around 6%. That is, people have less income to consume.”

Feldmann believes that reducing to Selic is not enough. For him, "the Brazilian Central Bank should act by forcing a reduction in interest rates for loans to both individuals and companies. It is very illusory to think that now that Selic has fallen to 6% Brazil will grow."

According to IBGE, unemployment in Brazil falls 0.7% in the quarter ending in June of 2019, average worker income decreased, and the number of informal workers increased

According to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the unemployment rate in the country was 12% in the quarter ending June 2019. Now, the total number of unemployed Brazilians is 12.8 million. The index fell 0.7% compared to the quarter between January and March and fell 0.4% compared to the same period last year. On the other hand, the number of self-employed workers hit a record of the historical series, which began in 2012, and reached 24.1 million. The number rose 1.6% from the previous quarter and 5% from the same period of 2018. Therefore, informality in Brazil remains very high by world standards.

The figure released by IBGE indicates that the number of discouraged and underutilized Brazilians has been attenuating the number of unemployed, which serves to mask the reality. If we add to this group the self-employed workers and those still receiving unemployment insurance even with this small increase in the number of employees in Brazil, the scenario remains practically stagnant.

The usual average income of the Brazilian population fell in the same period, reaching R$ 2,290, 1.3% less than in the previous quarter and without significant variation with the same period last year.

In the quarter ending June, Brazil had more than 28 million unemployed people and approximately 5 million despondent people, that is, those workers who gave up looking for work and therefore left unemployment statistics.

Hashtag #ImpeachmentDeBolsonaro gains momentum on Twitter after countless nonsense statements from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro

In recent days, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has shocked Brazilian and world public opinion with countless absurd statements.

Among the many absurdities of recent weeks, the Brazilian president said that Inpe, a world-renowned Brazilian scientific research institute, was at the service of international NGOs and lying about deforestation in the Amazon. Inpe director Ricardo Magnus Osorio Galvao said that the president's statements represented "behavior that does not respect the dignity and liturgy of the presidency".  Galvão also said that the president behaved "as if in a pub", making jokes like a "14-year-old boy that is not for a president to make". 

Then, at an official meeting, the president was recorded referring biased to the Northeastern people when he called the governors of the region "de Paraíba", a pejorative way to refer to that population. 

On the same day, the president said he "loved the Northeast" of Brazil, but what remained was a great unease of the governors of the region with the absurd statement. The population also responded with numerous demonstrations on the internet criticizing the president's speech.

He then threatened journalist Glenn Greenwald by implying that Greenwald had committed a crime for spreading messages captured by a hacker. Bolsonaro said the journalist was a "trickster" for marrying a Brazilian and threatened to arrest him. Bolsonaro's statement has been rebutted by countless organizations and political leaders, including House Speaker Rodrigo Maia, who recorded a video supporting Greenwald.

Following this, President Jair Bolsonaro has inhumanly cast doubt on the torture suffered by journalist Miriam Leitão, who was imprisoned during the military dictatorship in Brazil. Bolsonaro also said that Leitão had been a member of the guerrilla who fought against the dictatorship. Miriam was not a guerrilla member, and her torture occurred when she was only 19 years old. She was arrested pregnant by the military regime, taken to the headquarters of the 38th Army Infantry Battalion in Vitória, Espírito Santo, locked naked in a room, where a live snake was also placed to threaten her.

Then, last Monday, Bolsonaro cruelly made fun of the pain of Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) President Felipe Santa Cruz, whose father, Fernando Santa Cruz, was arrested in 1974 by the military dictatorship. Felipe then was just 2 years old and never saw his father again. The Brazilian president said that if Felipe wanted to know what had really happened to his father, he Bolsonaro would tell.

According to President Bolsonaro, Felipe's father was killed by the guerrillas themselves, a fact that does not correspond with the historical records. There is even a death certificate issued by the Brazilian government, indicating that Felipe's father was killed by the Brazilian state.

This sequence of absurd claims eventually led to the creation of the hashtag #ImpeachmentDeBolsonaro (Bolsonaro impeachment) and has also been the target of much criticism.

For jurist Miguel Reale Jr., one of the authors of the impeachment request of former President Dilma Rousseff (PT), President Jair Bolsonaro lives a "hallucinatory process" that puts Brazilian democracy at risk.

The murder of Indigenous leader Emyra Wajãpi by prospectors exposes the danger of President Bolsonaro's support for mining legalization in the Amazon region

Chief Emyra Wajãpi, 68, was killed in 25 of July, in Amapá by prospectors, who later invaded the village, the Indigenous said.

Asked about what happened, President Jair Bolsonaro once again stated that he intends to legalize mining in the country, which includes the liberation of the activity in Indigenous lands. He also said there was no strong evidence that Chief Emyra Wajãpi had been murdered.

However, according to Funai, the Regional Coordination of the National Indian Foundation in Amapá forwarded to the presidency of the body on Saturday in a memorandum reporting on a possible attack on the Waiãpi Indigenous Land, and media reports said it was an invasion of prospectors.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, charged yesterday (July 29) an investigation into the death of Chief Emyra Wajãpi, leader of the Wajãpi ethnic group, whose body was found inside a river in a demarcated area in Amapá.

Experts warn that legalizing mining in Indigenous reserves advocated by the president is risky, as it could put Indigenous populations and the environment at risk. In Brazil, mercury mining contaminates river waters, creating a huge prejudice for the environment. And the contact between prospectors and Indigenous people is marked by a lot of violence.

Cost of living in Brazil: IGP-M slows in July, a rising dollar and financial market betting massively on Selic interest rate cut

According to the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), the General Price Index - Market (IGP-M) decelerated to 0.40% in July after showing a high of 0.80% in June. With the July result, the IGP-M accumulated high of 4.79% in the year and 6.39% in 12 months.

Meanwhile, the Brazilian financial market is betting heavily on the 0.50% cut in the economy's base interest rate, the Selic, which is currently at 6.50%.

Some more cautious analysts believe that the Brazilian Central Bank, at the next Copom meeting to be held tomorrow, July 31, should cut Selic by only 0.25%, leaving the annual interest rate at 6.25% per year in Brazil.

The dollar price in Brazil closed again high yesterday, July 29. The US currency ended the day at 0.29% appreciation, selling at R$ 3.7830.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is a "case of interdiction", says jurist Miguel Reale Jr.

Miguel Reale Jr., the lawyer who, in 2015, was responsible for Dilma Rousseff's impeachment request, today strongly criticized President Jair Bolsonaro in an interview with Guaíba radio station in Porto Alegre.

For him, Bolsonaro "is no longer a case of impeachment, it is a case of interdiction". Reale Jr. believes the current president has put the country in "a frame of insanity". That is why the country should ban the current president.

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro says he knows how the father of the President of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) was murdered during the Military Dictatorship and the Brazilian public responds by creating the hashtag #AgoraFalaBolsonaro

President Jair Bolsonaro has cowardly attacked Brazilian Bar Association president Felipe Santa Cruz, saying he could "tell the truth" about how his father disappeared during the military dictatorship (1964-1985).

"One day, if the president of the OAB wants to know how his father disappeared during the military period, I tell him. He won't want to hear the truth," said the Brazilian president.

Felipe was only two years old when his father, Fernando Augusto de Santa Cruz Oliveira, a member of the Popular Action Group (AP), an organization opposed to the military regime in Brazil, was arrested by the government in 1974 and was never seen again. Fernando's body was never found.

The president's speech provoked a wave of protests from the most varied members of Brazilian civil society and the country's politics. São Paulo governor João Dória, who supported Bolsonaro during the presidential campaign in 2018, said the statement was "unacceptable".

Amnesty International's executive director, Jurema Werneck, repudiated this afternoon about the statement by President Jair Bolsonaro regarding the death of Fernando Augusto Santa Cruz de Oliveira, one of the missing politicians during the military dictatorship in Brazil. Fernando was the father of the current president of the Brazilian Bar Association, Felipe Santa Cruz.

The OAB itself issued a note of repudiation of Bolsonaro's statement about the entity's president's father.

The hashtag #AgoraFalaBolsonaro (Speak now Bolsonaro) is filled with messages stating that if the president knows what happened during the military dictatorship he has a statesman obligation to explain what happened to Fernando. Then, after the immense repercussion of the president's terrible speech, Bolsonaro ended by claiming that Fernando was killed by leftist militants. 

However, an Air Force Report on the case of Fernando's death belies Bolsonaro. Thus, the president's phrase goes down in history as one of the most shameful moments of the Brazilian executive power.

There is even a death certificate for Fernando Augusto de Santa Cruz Oliveira. The document was issued by the Special Commission on Political Dead and Missing Persons, published to the Ministry of Women and Human Rights on a federal government website that Bolsonaro runs. Bolsonaro's speech, besides being abject, is also a liar.

Banco do Brasil (BBAS3) approves series of measures to reorganize the state-owned company

The Banco do Brasil announced today trials of measures aimed at reducing staffing. The institution's Board of Directors has approved a set of actions for institutional reorganization that should result in dismissals of employees.

The announced measures should completely resize the state's organizational structure at the strategic, tactical, support, and business levels. Meaning general management, superintendencies, regional bodies, and agencies.

The state company also announced the creation of an area focused on artificial intelligence and analytics. The bank also stated that it intends to transform 333 branches into Advanced Attendance Points (PAA), that is, increasing the automated attendance.

Brazilian financial market bets on Selic interest rate cuts in Brazil

Interest rate cuts in Brazil are more than priced on curves. Now, after the approval of the first-round Social Security Reform in the Chamber of Deputies, the Brazilian financial market expects the next Copom meeting to decide to cut the basic courses of the Brazilian economy.

Currently, Selic is at 6.5% per year. The Brazilian financial market bets on a cut of at least 0.25%. There are also those who bet on a 0.50% cut.

The Focus Report released today by the Brazilian Central Bank presented a scenario of the Brazilian economy without major changes. According to Focus, there is an upward trend in the exchange rate in Brazil – the projected exchange rate for 2020 remains at R$ 3,90 – which indicates that foreign investors have not yet raised their capital in Brazil.

With a profit of r$ 2.6 billion, Ambev (ABEV3) rises almost 8% and leads Ibovespa highs

Ambev, the largest Brazilian producer of beverages, increased net income in the second quarter of 2019 by 8.5% over the same period in 2018. The excellent performance was due to the reduction in the company's financial expenses, according to the balance released today ( July 25, 1919).

In the first trades on Thursday morning at Bovespa (B3), Ambev (ABEV3) shares are trading with a strong 8.30% appreciation at R $ 19.45, leading the Ibovespa gains.

Economists believe that releasing just R$ 500 per person at FGTS will culminate in another chicken flight to the Brazilian economy

The release of about R $ 30 billion should be positive, but it should not change much the scenario of economic growth of Brazilian GDP in 2019. Overall, the forecast revisions for GDP in 2019 were very marginal. Nothing very expressive. Most analysts point to a growth of about 0.8% of GDP in 2019, ie very small.

For the former president of BNDES and former Minister of Communications, economist and engineer Luiz Carlos Mendonça de Barros, the measures presented by the government are timid to leverage the Brazilian GDP.

Economy Minister Paulo Guedes himself said in early June 2019 that releasing FGTS money before pension reform would be a “chicken flight”. Now, even though the pension reform is not fully approved, the government decides to adopt the measure.

Yesterday, during the measure's presentation ceremony, Guedes said the FGTS withdrawal will be a permanent income, not "chicken flight," as he himself had said.

For Maranhão Governor Flávio Dino, the "release of the FGTS is a good measure, but it is a trickle in the ocean of national recession."

Dino believes that “the expansion of public works is urgent. It is an emergency debt relief program to improve demand. There are ways. But we need to focus on Brazil. ”

Dino thus criticizes the policy of the current government, which is openly aimed at pleasing the international bond market.

Flavio Dino was verbally attacked by President Bolsonaro during a private conversation with the Chief Minister of the House, Onyx Lorenzoni, captured by TV microphones a few days ago.