“Brazil grows more than China and has less inflation than Europe.”
The phrase was said by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) during a quick press conference, this Friday (28), after the last debate with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), promoted by Rede Globo. Simplistic, it is the synthesis of how the discussions were conducted by the candidates in their last meeting before the vote on Sunday (30).
Yes, projections indicate that Brazil could end the year with a growth rate above China’s for the first time since the 1980s. However, an association between the two countries is pathetic, to say the least. There is no rule of comparison between the two economies. Nor is it worth mentioning the structural abyss. Let’s just look at the difference in the magnitude of GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The Chinese closed 2021 at US$ 17.7 trillion, while the Brazilian was at US$ 1.6 trillion.
The same goes for the cost of living comparison. At the end of September, considering 12 months, inflation in the Euro Zone reached 10%, the peak in a historical series that started in 1977. In Brazil, the rise in the cost of living was 7.17% in the same period.
What the president does not explain is that both indices are influenced by the appreciation of food and the energy crisis, with the difference that the Bolsonaro government, in an election campaign, made Petrobras hold back fuel prices, and Congress passed measures that also momentarily tamed the surge in electricity.
These alleged economic advantages of Brazil are not consequences of any public policy of the current government. They are mere momentary dysfunctions still generated by the pandemic.
Had Brazil been surfing a wave of growth and tamed inflation, Bolsonaro would not have started the debate betting on the maxim that the best defense is attack. He opened the discussion by saying that he will adopt a minimum wage of R$ 1,400 in an attempt to neutralize one of the biggest damages to his campaign in this second round, the leak that the Ministry of Economy evaluates ending the readjustment of the minimum wage for past inflation. Studies in this direction were revealed by the Sheet.
The president did not raise the minimum wage above inflation at a time when household income shrank and was also eroded by inflation, which reached 11.89% in the 12 months ended in June this year.
Brazil is no better than China or the Eurozone.
Throughout the entire debate, the voter suffered from wordplay and reasoning. He was forced to follow a flurry of disconnected speeches and the trivialization of discussions as vital for the country’s future as the fight against poverty, a theme that was approached with a recital of numbers that say little to the voter.
In the section in which the discussion should address respect for the Constitution, an essential item to ensure investor confidence, the erratic speeches ranged from Lula promoting land invasions to Bolsonaro defending the morning-after pill in the 1990s.
The moment when Lula was talking about health mentioned that Bolsonaro went to the funeral of the Queen of England, but did not provide support to the dead of Covid in Brazil, while Bolsonaro criticized the program with Cuban doctors. In one of the rare moments of interaction between the candidates, Bolsonaro explained that the distribution of 35,000 boxes of Viagra to the Army were for prostate treatment and even asked his opponent: “Do you use it?”.
When questioning the disarmament proposal, Bolsonaro tried to associate Lula with organized crime, noting that he visited the Complexo do Alemão. As it could not be otherwise, there were citations to Roberto Jefferson, an ally of the PT in the past and an ally of Bolsonaro until recently, who was pushed from one side to the other by candidates who do not want to be related to the former deputy who received the PF with bullets and grenades — and jumped into a low-key exchange of considerations on violence against women.
The debate ended with zero to zero for the candidates and also for the undecided ones.
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