High GDP does not always mean more jobs, says Lula

GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth does not always translate into job and salary generation, said this Thursday (2) presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), hours after the IBGE announced that the Brazilian economy expanded by 1% in the first quarter.

“When the GDP grows, you do not receive a salary increase because the GDP has grown. GDP growth does not always mean that it has generated more jobs. We are sure that it has generated an accumulation of wealth in those who are entrepreneurs in this country. grows, you can be sure that the worker loses. It comes on the back of the worker”, said Lula during his visit to Porto Alegre (RS).

The former president also stated that the PT governments had as a guideline the correction of the minimum wage taking into account the growth of the economy.

“In our government, we used to increase the salary according to the growth of the GDP. I don’t know if you remember, but it was [a correção da] inflation of the year, more [o crescimento do] GDP of two years ago”, he declared.

Until 2019, the rule for the minimum wage provided for the correction for the inflation of the previous year plus the real increase in GDP of two years before (if the latter was positive) – which, for most of the period, provided real readjustments to workers. The rule was instituted in 2011, under Dilma Rousseff (PT).

As of 2020, during the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), there was only an increase in the minimum wage by the INPC. This means that, since then, the minimum wage has not seen any real gains.

Lula’s speech took place during a meeting with representatives of cooperatives in the capital of Rio Grande do Sul. At the event, the former president declared that cooperativism needs to find the new app-based economy. As an example, he praised the attempt by the city of Araraquara (SP) to create a transport application with 90% of the amount collected for the drivers themselves.

The increase in GDP reported this Thursday was driven by the return of services, the main sector from the point of view of supply in the indicator. The segment, which had been shaken by the restrictive measures to contain Covid-19, also rose 1% compared to the end of 2021. Despite being positive, the performance was below the 1.2% projected by the Bloomberg agency for the period.