Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Tuesday that his country was “broke” and that he couldn’t “do anything” about it, laying the blame on what he called the “press-fueled” coronavirus pandemic.
State subsidies that had sustained the poorest third of Brazil’s population for nine months stopped this week, on concerns about the country’s rising deficit and public debt load.
“Brazil is broke, boss, I cannot do anything,” Bolsonaro told a supporter who was asking him about his campaign promises.
The coronavirus pandemic has killed 198,000 Brazilians, the world’s highest death toll after the U.S. 360,000.
Bolsonaro has derided the COVID-19 disease he likened to “a little flu” and condemned “the hysteria” around it, but his popularity has soared in the last year, due in large part to the payouts. Brazil has yet to start its vaccination campaign against the virus.
According to the latest International Monetary Fund report, the Brazilian economy shrank by nearly 6% in 2020 and was expected to grow by 2.8% this year. Public debt stands at about 100% of gross domestic product.
The outlook: The coronavirus pandemic is expected to spread further in the next weeks after the Christmas and New Year celebrations. And Bolsonaro is running for reelection in 2022. His warning about the state of public finances may have been a way to prepare public opinion for stricter fiscal policies.
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