Thursday, 27 February 2020

Confirmation of a Coronavirus case (Covid-19) and president Jair Bolsonaro endorsing anti-democracy protests are the subjects of the most important Brazilian newspapers

The newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo states that the stock market falls 7% after the arrival of the coronavirus in Brazil. The Valor Econômico newspaper reports that coronavirus drops the stock market and companies lose R $ 260 billion. O Globo publishes that the arrival of coronavirus in Brazil causes the stock market to plummet 7% and Correio Braziliense reports that coronavirus causes losses of R$ 290 billion in just one day.

According to The New York Times, "a 61-year-old São Paulo man who returned recently from a business trip to Italy has tested positive for the coronavirus, Brazilian health officials said on Wednesday (26.02.2020), confirming the first known case in Latin America and sending a shudder through the entire region".

In addition, there is a huge criticism of President Jair Bolsonaro by a large part of the media, politicians, leaders of civil society institutions and members of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), such as Judge Celso de Mello, who said that " Bolsonaro is not up to the job if he supported an act against Congress".

According to The Guardian, "Jair Bolsonaro’s apparent endorsement of protests designed to cow Brazil’s democratic institutions has sparked outrage across the political spectrum with one lawmaker warning of a return to the dark days of dictatorship if the demonstrations are not opposed".

Saturday, 8 February 2020

Evangelical preacher Ricardo Lopes Dias, who worked on a mission to evangelize Indigenous people in the Amazon, is appointed as general coordinator of Isolated Indigenous people, one of Funai's most sensitive sectors

The government of Jair Bolsonaro, through Funai (Brazilian National Indian Foundation), appointed evangelical preacher, anthropologist, and missionary Ricardo Lopes Dias to the General Coordination of Isolated Indians and Newly Contacted, the most technical position of the agency.

Lopes Dias is a theologian and served for many years in the New Tribes of Brazil Mission (MNTB), an organization that aims to evangelize indigenous people.

According to El País, the appointment of the anthropologist produced a series of criticisms made by Indigenous entities and servants of the Funai itself, who fear a change in the policy practiced in the country since the end of the military dictatorship: to protect these peoples without forcing any type of contact, as it happened before the re-democratization with the objective of "evangelizing" and "integrating" them into society.

For the Indigenous leader, Sonia Guajajara, with the indication of the evangelical preacher Lopes Dias, "the danger [for the Indigenous people] now comes from who has the duty to protect them", that is, Funai itself.

According to The Guardian, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, a UN special rapporteur, says that Jair Bolsonaro’s ‘dangerous’ appointment of Ricardo Lopes Dias threatens remote Indigenous people. For her,  “this is a dangerous decision that may have the potential to cause genocide among isolated Indigenous people.”

According to the former Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, "the president of FUNAI changed the internal rules of the agency so that a person outside the staff of career servants would assume a commissioned function of leadership. He appointed Mr. Ricardo Lopes Dias to be the new coordinator of isolated and recently contacted Indigenous people".

For her, "an area that requires a lot of experience and technical knowledge cannot be held hostage by patronage, at the risk of returning to a policy of the time of the dictatorship that does not respect the condition of isolation of some Indigenous peoples".

Friday, 7 February 2020

Cost of living in Brazil: January inflation is 0.21%, the lowest for January since the beginning of the Real Plan, in 1994

According to IBGE, the official inflation in Brazil, as measured by the Broad National Consumer Price Index (IPCA), decelerated to 0.21% in January of 2019, after registering an increase of 1.15% in December 2018. It is the lowest result for a month in January since the beginning of the Real Plan, in July 1994. In the accumulated of the last 12 months, the indicator registered 4.19%.

For economist Monica de Bolle, director of Latin American studies and emerging markets at Johns Hopkins University, "Brazil is experiencing a 'tropical version' of secular stagnation, with a stagnant economy, without reacting, and registering inflation contained below the target. It is not yet known what effect a reduction in interest rates could have on the economy in the current scenario".

To make matters worse, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), economic activity in Latin America and the Caribbean was stagnant in 2019, making it more challenging to resume growth in the region. The inflation figure for January in Brazil points to a certain stagnation remaining.

According to the IMF report, Brazil may grow by 2.2% this year and 2.3% in 2021 in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, after the emergence of coronavirus cases in Wuhan, China, Brazil's main trading partner, these figures are being revised downwards by the Brazilian financial market.

Thursday, 6 February 2020

Government of Jair Bolsonaro excludes the participation of civil society members of the National Environment Fund council

According to the website G1, The National Environment Fund (FNMA), managed by the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment and responsible for promoting the development of sustainable activities in the country, distributing funds collected in forestry concessions, will no longer have the participation of members of civil society.

Until then, the council had the participation of representatives of the Brazilian Association of Environmental Entities (Abema), the National Association of Municipalities and Environment (Anamma), the Brazilian Forum of NGOs and Social Movements for the Environment and Development (FBOMS), of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science (SBPC). Now they will no longer have a say in FNMA decisions.

Paradoxically, during the presidential campaign that elected Jair Bolsonaro, one of the themes of the then-candidate and now president was "more Brazil, less Brasília". However, what is seen in government decisions is the exact opposite. By withdrawing civil society from FNMA discussions, the government is adopting a policy of more Brasilia and less Brazil.

Now, the FNMA will manage a budget of more than R $ 33 million without the participation of civil society. In 2019, the Bolsonaro government reduced the number of participants in the National Environment Council (Conama) from 22 to 4. Thus, "the more Brazil, less Brasilia" of the campaign is consolidated as an argument used to elect a government that increasingly decreases the power and participation of decision-making councils and forums in decisions and constantly and willingly distances itself from the interaction with representatives civil society.

Brazilian BC cuts Selic and rate drops to historical level of 4.25% per year

The Monetary Policy Committee (Copom) of the Central Bank (BC) of Brazil decided to reduce the basic interest rate, the Selic, from 4.5% to 4.25% per year. This is the lowest Selic rate since 1999 when Brazil adopted the monetary policy of inflation targeting.

The expectation of financial market specialists in Brazil is that the Selic will only rise again in 2021. In a statement, the Copom stated that its next steps "will continue depending on the evolution of economic activity, the balance of risks and the projections and expectations of inflation, with increasing weight for the calendar year 2021".

In general, the Brazilian financial market understood the new cut as a wise decision by the Brazilian Central Bank, as it will reduce interest rates and may positively impact the productive sectors of the economy, which, in turn, may increase the generation of jobs in Brazil. The measure also helps to lower the country's public debt costs.

Despite the Selic cut, market interest rates remain exorbitant in Brazil. According to an article published in the Jornal dos Economistas, written by the national coordinator of the Brazilian Citizen Debt Audit, Maria Lucia Fattorelli, the fault lies with the Brazilian Central Bank itself.

She believes that "the financial market charges interest as it sees fit on loans, overdraft, credit card etc. First, because there is no regulation that limits interest: it should be noted that since 2003, part of Article 192 of the Brazilian Constitution that limited real interest to 12%, above which the practice of usury would be configured ".

Wednesday, 5 February 2020

The water crisis in Rio de Janeiro remains unsolved

Cedae (State Water and Sewage Company) leaves 67 neighborhoods in the city of Rio Janeiro and 6 other cities in the state without water.

The Guandu Treatment Station, one of the largest in the country, stopped its activities for 14 hours due to the presence of detergent in the spring.

In total, there is no water supply in 67 neighborhoods in the capital and in six municipalities in the Baixada Fluminense, where 7 million people live.
For the sanitation specialist Renato Falcão Dantas, "the trend is getting worse", in a report published by O Globo.

In several parts of the city of Rio de Janeiro and Baixada Fluminense there is a lack of mineral water in supermarkets. Residents have been consuming mineral water for three weeks so as not to consume the muddy and fetid water that is coming out of the taps.

According to technicians, the water that is coming out of the taps is contaminated by geosmin, an organic compound formed by carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and produced naturally by algae.

Tuesday, 4 February 2020

Brazilian industrial production closes 2019 with a drop of 1.1%; informality in the labor market in Brazil is the highest in the last 4 years

Segundo a Pesquisa Industrial Mensal (PIM-PF), divulgada pelo IBGE, "a produção nacional da indústria brasileira recuou 1,1% no ano de 2019, após dois anos seguidos de crescimento em 2017 (2,5%) e 2018 (1%)".

De acordo com o gerente da pesquisa, André Macedo, "das 24 atividades pesquisadas, 16 tiveram queda no ano. A produção industrial pode estar sendo impactada pelas incertezas no ambiente externo e também pela situação do mercado de trabalho no país que, embora tenha tido melhora, ainda afeta a demanda doméstica”.

According to the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Continuous PNAD), also published by IBGE, informality in the Brazilian labor market, that is, the sum of workers without a license, domestic workers without a license, an employer without a CNPJ, an own account without CNPJ and auxiliary family worker, reached 41.1% of the employed population in 2019. This total is equivalent to 38.4 million people, the largest contingent since 2016. 

Friday, 31 January 2020

According to IBGE, informal work in Brazil reaches the largest contingent since 2016, with 41.4% of the employed population, which corresponds to 38.4 million people

According to the IBGE, Brazil has 11.6 million workers without a formal contract in the private sector, a number that does not include domestic employees. This total represents an expansion of 4% in relation to 2018. This is the highest level of the historical series started in 2012. The number of self-employed workers reached the highest level in the series, rising to 24.2 million, with the most (19.3 million), without CNPJ. The number also represents an increase of 3.9 million people since 2012. In comparison with 2018, the expansion was 4.1% (958 thousand).

Therefore, informality reached 41.1% of the employed population, equivalent to 38.4 million people, the largest contingent since 2016, despite the stability in relation to 2018.

Economically, it is brutal for a country when informality reaches 41% of the labor market. If we take into account the growth of temporary and part-time contracts, Brazil is undergoing a dramatic change for the worse in employment.

It is not possible to consider the fall in the unemployment rate to be positive when it is a direct result of the growth of informality. The reason is simple: selling things on the street and working intermittently 4 hours a day is underemployment.

Thursday, 30 January 2020

Jair Bolsonaro's government promises a deficit in 2019 of between R$ 70 billion and R$ 80 billion, but the government ended last year with a primary deficit of R$ 95.1 billion

According to the newspaper Correio Braziliense, data released by the National Treasury show that the deficit recorded last year is R $ 43.9 billion less than the target forecast for 2019, which was a negative result of R $ 139 billion. The result is also 23.7% better than in 2018 when the gap reached R $ 120 billion. However, the gap was much larger than the government had promised.

Jair Bolsonaro's government had promised a deficit in 2019 between R$ 70 billion and R$ 80 billion, but the government ended last year with a primary deficit of R$ 95.1 billion, that is, more than 15 billion above the government's forecast.

Despite the result being the best since 2014 after Economy Minister Paulo announced that the deficit in 2019 was expected to be R$ 80 billion. Then, Mansueto Almeida, secretary of the Treasury, even said that the 2019 deficit would be R$ 70 billion. For this reason, the final result is frustrating, if we consider the communications of the registry and the secretary. Therefore, this government's inability to communicate with the media can worsen even when the results are not so bad.

Wednesday, 29 January 2020

Extreme weather: rains close to three times the average in the last five days in Minas Gerais, Brazil, causing 53 dead, one person missing, 65 injured and leaving more than 4 thousand homeless and more than 28 thousand displaced from their homes

The number of deaths due to the rains in Minas Gerais in the last few days has reached 53. Since October 2019, 64 people have died in Minas Gerais in rains that behave as extreme weather events. Until then, the highest number of deaths had been 18, in the 2016/2017 and 2018/2019 rainy seasons.

According to the G1 website, the latest balance released by the State Civil Defense of Minas Gerais, published on Tuesday (28), 28,893 people are displaced and another 4,397 have lost their homes due to intense rains. More than 100 cities have already ruled out an emergency situation.

Videos of scary rain scenes in Belo Horizonte have taken over social media in Brazil in the last hours.

List of videos:




Ministry of Health of Brazil raised the risk rating to "imminent danger" after confirming 3 patients suspected of having the coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Minas Gerais, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul

Ministry of Health of Brazil raised the risk rating to "imminent danger" after confirming 3 patients suspected of having the coronavirus in Minas Gerais, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul. 

Today, according to the Poder360 website, Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency of Brazil) has created 1 public health emergency group to conduct actions related to the new coronavirus. The team was created through an ordinance published in the Diário Oficial da União (an official government publication) today.

Today, the Paraná Department of Health has ruled out a suspected coronavirus case in Curitiba. Until yesterday, two patients were admitted to hospitals in the capital of Paraná with the suspicion of having contracted the disease. According to the folder, the patient had influenza of the Influenza B subtype, which was detected in tests.

The second case of coronavirus is still under investigation in Curitiba. It is a 23-year-old woman who is at the Hospital das Clínicas. She traveled to China in the past few days.

According to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, the three patients under observation who are in Curitiba (Paraná), Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais) and Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul) fit the current definition of suspected cases for nCoV-2019 (the coronavirus) established by WHO (World Health Organization).

Brazil to Host World's Largest Biogas Plant, Pioneering Sustainable Energy

The Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) marks construction commencement of the world's largest biogas plant from citrus effluents, which is loc...