The economic crisis caused by Covid- 19 puts 7 million Brazilians at risk of falling into poverty.
This negative scenario is avoidable if the emergency income transfer mechanisms adopted by the government reach their target audience and last long enough to mitigate the effects of the recession.
The World Bank made the prediction and also revised its predicted contraction of the Brazilian economy in 2020 to 8%, well above the already significant 5% drop estimated by the institution in April.
The new figure represents a ten percentage point change from the 2% growth expected for the country earlier this year.
With social distancing imposed by the coronavirus, the brutal economic reversal has mainly affected informal and self-employed workers, bringing the risk of an explosion of poverty.
According to the World Bank's accounts, without the protection measures implemented by the federal government, the total number of impoverished Brazilians could jump from 41.8 million in 2019 to 48.8 million (about 23% of the population) in 2020.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon