Voters Skeptical about Economy's Recovery: Datafolha Poll

08/24/2018 - 14h14

Brazilian voters don't expect the economy to improve any time soon, according to a Datafolha pool carried out between August 20th and 21st.

Unemployment, one of the indicators with worse numbers in the country, will deteriorate even further, 48% of interviewees say. For 19% of them, it will improve.

The responses reveal the same pessimism disclosed in the previous poll, from early June: 46% predicted further decline in employment and 22% expected an improvement.

Variations are within the margin of error, of two percentage points above or below the results.

The poll interviewed 8,433 people face to face in 313 municipalities. The results' confidence interval is 95%.

Unemployment in Brazil shot up after 2015, according to data from IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, a government agency with the same role as the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the U.S.)

The unemployment rate, which was 6.5% in late 2014, peaked at 13.7% in the first quarter of 2017. The rate for the second quarter of 2018, the most recent one, is 12.4%.

Expectations for inflation are also negative. For 54% of interviewees, it will rise. This goes in line with the last poll from June, that showed 52% predicted a turn for the worse.

Regarding the general economy, for 41% think it will continue as it is. 31% say it will get worse, while 23% expect it to get better.

Translated by NATASHA MADOV

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