The impacts of the pandemic on the Brazilian economy

Abstract

The first impacts of the pandemic on the Brazilian economy were seen in March 2020 and they did so over a weak level of activity, still not fully recovered from the previous recession that lasted eleven quarters, between 2014 and 2016. By denying the severity of the disease, the Federal Government lost a lot of time discussing a false issue: preserving the health of the population or preserving the economy. Even so, under pressure from the Legislative Branch, it implemented several programs to support families and companies, which ended up preventing a further drop in GDP. However, it did so following the unfulfilled expectation that the pandemic would end in early 2021. When this was not confirmed, it became reluctant to preserve those support programs, causing much suffering to the poorest families and micro and small businesses. The possibilities of an economic recovery depend on being able to gain control of the pandemic, advance in the vaccination process and managing to resolve the large amount of liabilities that were generated while the activity was semi-paralyzed.