Brazil’s Economy Minister: “Political war undermines economic recovery”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Minister of Economy Paulo Guedes on Tuesday, November 30, said that the economy had a V-shaped recovery and that investments are coming back.

“The political war is damaging,” the Minister said, noting “worrisome patterns” in the political arena. “People are losing sense, they have created hate bubbles,” he stated.

During his speech at the 93rd National Meeting of the Construction Industry (ENIC), the Minister spoke about the opposition’s behavior: “What if the right-wing loses and decides to behave the same way and does this, calls for impeachment every day? There were people climbing on corpses in the pandemic,” Guedes said.

Guedes also stressed that all tax revenues this year are breaking records and praised the performance of the construction sector during the pandemic. “Construction created jobs and maintained activity during the pandemic. It was an absolutely outstanding sector, protected with safety practices, it worked, created jobs, income, and continues to grow,” he added.

He also emphasized the service sector and the economic recovery with the post-covid reopening: “The service sector is coming back, tourism is coming back, Brazil is bound to grow,” the Minister continued.

According to Guedes, Brazil had not been growing for the past 30 years, and yet the problems fell on “the Bolsonaro government.” “Deforestation has been going on for 30 years, the country has not grown for 30 years. Brazil had virtually stopped and now the Bolsonaro government is to blame. And we still had Covid,” the Minister added.

REFORMS

The Minister again expressed his frustration for failing to implement all the reforms promised when he took command of the portfolio. “This idea of coming in kicking the door in, a romantic notion, can’t change everything because there is a whole setup,” Guedes said. “Obviously, it frustrates us to come in with big dreams and achieve 50% or 40%,” he continued.

In his speech, Guedes recalled the approval of the Social Security reform, stating that he had the support of President Jair Bolsonaro, but that the Chief Executive did not want the political attrition caused by changes in the retirement rule.

The Minister also criticized what he classified as “injustices” against government officials, including himself.

“They created characters that don’t exist, the person they say I am doesn’t exist, and then I witnessed the injustices committed against government officials. I believe in the improvement of institutions, in the Chamber, Senate, Presidency, Federal Supreme Court, in the media, which is the fourth power,” Guedes said, recalling events in which he was criticized for certain statements.