Brazil is in the midst of the slowest economic recovery in its history. If Brazil's GDP (gross domestic product) fails to grow to this year, stagnating for the third year in a row, then the country will have entered a depression.
This is the view of Alfonso Celso Pastore, ex-president of Banco Centro, who launched last Friday (18) the report "The depression after the recession."
According to the document, economic crises should be judged not only by the deepness of the recession and how well a country bounces back, but also by how much each citizen loses in income from the beginning of the recession. "In this area, were living in a cycle without precedent," the text said.
Given that the GDP increased just 1.1% in 2017 and 2018 and Brazil's population grows 0.8% each year, the gain in income for each Brazilian was an "insignificant magnitude," during this period. The same will happen in 2019 if the GDP increases around 1% or less, thus confirming a depression.
For the economy to exit this quagmire, Pastore said that it's not enough for the government to focus just on social security reform. It needs to pay attention to society's expectations.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon