Unlike what the pastor says, the report cites other countries with a positive scenario besides Brazil

It is a misleading video in which a pastor claims that only Brazil will have a positive economic scenario in 2022, while the outlook for the economy of other countries is bleak.

In the recording, dated July 31, 2022, Jecer Goes, one of the founders of the Canaã Ministry, in Fortaleza, cites a recent report from the IMF (International Monetary Fund). As verified by Projeto Comprova, the pastor says that the agency “brought news that shakes the world” and goes on: “The news is that the outlook for the world economy is bleak. Now, pay attention to the rest of the news. that only Brazil is outside this negative perspective”.

However, the document, called “World Economic Outlook” and published on July 26 this year, provides positive data not only for Brazil, but for other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, in addition to Saudi Arabia.

For Brazil, the estimate of economic growth is 1.7% in 2022. Colombia and Chile were also cited in the report (without the respective projections) as economies that had a robust recovery and drove a revision of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to up. The projection for Mexico is higher than that of Brazil, at 2.4%, as well as that of Saudi Arabia (7.6%).

Sought, the church replied that the pastor was based on “report published by various news portals in the country”. However, the article to which they refer says that Brazil and Mexico are among the exceptions, which differs from what was stated by the pastor, who used only the title information.

Misleading, for Comprova, is content taken from the original context and used in another so that its meaning is altered; that uses inaccurate data or that leads to an interpretation different from the author’s intention; content that confuses, with or without the deliberate intent to cause harm.

Scope of publication

Posted on August 2, 2022, the video went viral a few days later. On TikTok, on August 12, it had 389,000 views. On the same date, the publication on the investigated Facebook profile had 4,700 shares and 110,000 views. The full video was published on July 31 on the religious’s YouTube channel, which has 83,300 subscribers.

What the author of the publication says

When contacted, the Canaan Ministry replied that Goes reproduced reports published on news portals about the report. Asked about the content of the report, the church replied that “the pastor read only the title of the article” and that, “if there is any other country included in this list of exceptions, the journalistic article should have mentioned it in the title”. And he added, with a threat: “if there is any doubt, we will pass the matter over to Legal on any undue matter involving the name of the pastor”.

How do we check

In the video, Pastor Goes mentions that the data cited by him were obtained from an IMF document. Thus, the report sought the most recent report on the outlook for the world economy on the Fund’s website. The document was then read to understand if the video content was true. A search was also made on YouTube for the channel of Jecer Goes, which contains the video of the cult in full.

Finally, the team tried to contact Goes by phone, email and WhatsApp from the church and by private message on the pastor’s Facebook profile, Instagram and in his personal email published on the Facebook page.

The report

The “World Economic Outlook” report, published by the IMF on July 26 this year, in fact points to a “dark and more uncertain” scenario for the world economy in the period between 2022 and 2023. The text is an IMF staff survey to assess the short- and medium-term development of the global economy. The study is published twice a year.

According to IMF experts’ forecasts, global GDP, after rising 6.1% in 2021, will slow to 3.2% in 2022. “This reflects the stagnation in the world’s three largest economies — the United States, China and the eurozone—with important consequences for world prospects,” the text states.

However, for Latin America and the Caribbean, the analysis was positive. The estimate is growth of 3% for the entire region. In addition, the IMF calculates a more robust recovery in the economies of Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Chile.

For Brazil, the estimate is for an increase of 1.7%. Mexico, however, should have an even greater growth, reaching 2.4%. The report does not detail data for Colombia and Chile. The IMF justifies the improvement in Brazil and Mexico due to the rise in the prices of “fossil fuels and metals” exported by these countries.

Another highlight of the IMF is in relation to Saudi Arabia, in Asia, whose GDP is expected to increase by 7.6% this year.

Religious service in Ceará

Pastor Jecer Goes’ speech was given during the service on July 31, 2022, at the Canaã Assembly of God, in Ceará. In the recording, before starting a prayer, he tells the audience: “Today, the International Monetary Fund, known by the acronym of the IMF, brought news that shakes the world. The news is that the prospects for the world economy are bleak. , pay attention to the rest of the news. The IMF reports that only Brazil is out of this negative outlook”.

Why do we investigate?

Comprova investigates suspicious content that went viral on social media about the pandemic, public policies of the federal government and presidential elections. By bringing misleading statements about the economy in an election year in Brazil, the verified video makes people choose their candidate based on inaccurate information, which is harmful to Brazilian democracy.

Recently, Projeto Comprova showed that the video is misleading when it claims that bankers support Lula for alleged losses to the sector caused by Bolsonaro.

Content was also produced attesting to a tweet by federal deputy Marco Feliciano (PL-SP) saying that Brazilian state-owned companies had a profit of R$ 1 trillion in 2021 under Bolsonaro.

Another analysis shows that post confuses when highlighting Brazil’s position in economic growth ranking.