Opinion – Maria Inês Dolci: Indebted consumers await a Proer from families

In Alice in Wonderland, the fall faced by the character seemed to have no end. In the real world, in Brazil, this has also happened with the consumer.

It is clear that in 2023 consumers will need some sort of refinancing of personal debts, a kind of Proer for families, or the situation will get even worse. One in four Brazilians, found out the CNI (National Confederation of Industry), cannot even pay all the basic bills for the month.

The Proer –Program to Stimulate the Restructuring and Strengthening of the National Financial System– was adopted after the Real Plan to avoid a chain failure of banks in the country. In this sense, there is also the Refis (Fiscal Recovery Program), for the refinancing of tax or non-tax debts of individuals or legal entities to the Union or the Federal Revenue Service.

The economy does not recover with millions of debtors. After all, who should buy only the most essential products, such as food. And it reduces, with each trip to the supermarket, the items placed in the cart. The survey has other dire findings, such as that 34% were late on their electricity and water bills, two essential items for subsistence.

Leaving some bills for the next month, using the overdraft, paying the minimum on the credit card – sinking into the dangerous revolving – and resorting to loans or help to pay the slips are practices that make up a regrettable scenario of indebtedness.

As annual inflation is still in double digits, despite the deflation in July (due to tax exemptions on fuel and electricity), even the fact that 44% say they can pay the bills, but with no money left, represents serious threat. Family income does not increase, so this squeeze can turn into debt or the inability to buy the essentials of life.

The hope of those who responded to the survey, however, is explainable, because elections can bring new directions for the economy. Changes will have to come so that bones, chicken skin, whey, broken rice and beans, and canceled meals become just a sad reminder of very difficult days.

The recovery of the economy will necessarily pass through the plate. Without food security, there will be no space to resume consumption of other items. It’s no use blaming the coronavirus pandemic, the invasion of Ukraine and soaring commodity prices.

Analysis of the culprits for the crisis does not solve the empty pantries across Brazil. Food security must be the first commitment of those who intend to govern Brazil in the next four years.