Datafolha Survey Reveals Pessimism Regarding Employment and Brazilian Cost of Living

06/12/2018 - 12h35

Based upon the last couple of months, the majority of Brazilians have a negative outlook on the country's economic situation and don't believe that unemployment or inflation will decrease in the near future.

This conclusion comes from the most recent research conducted by Datafolha which was concluded on Wednesday (the 7th). 52% of survey respondents see inflation increasing, 46% expect greater unemployment and 35% believe that purchasing power will decrease. These numbers are in line with those of April, when the last survey was conducted.

Previously, expectations regarding the future had been increasing since November of last year, a tendency that was interrupted this month in the wake of the truckers' strike.

In considering the country's overall economic situation, 38% believe that it will remain as it is now while 32% believe that it will worsen - the latter group was smaller in April, measuring 26% of those interviewed. At the end of 2016, the expectation for worsening was measured at 41%, the peak period of negativity regarding the Temer government.

Compared to April, the percentage of those who believe that the rate of inflation will remain the same or decrease appears to be stable. The survey's statistical margin of error is 2 percentage points positive or negative.

May's measured inflation rate shows that although the index has increased in the last two months, it is still running at an annual rate of 2,8% as measured over the accumulated previous twelve months, below the target level - the target for 2018 is a rate of between 3% and 6%, with the midpoint of the target being 4.5%.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

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