Economic recovery hasn’t been felt by poorer Brazilians

Poorer Brazilians haven’t felt the economic recovery. Photo: Paulo Pinto/PR

Over the past few months, Brazil’s Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) has recorded a slow – but steady – economic recovery in Brazil. While businesses have grown more optimistic about the country’s outlook after three years of recession, poorer Brazilians have yet to feel the positive effects of the recovery.

According to Plano CDE, a survey institute specialized in the consumption habits of lower-income families, poorer Brazilians evaluate their own financial situation as being ‘as vulnerable as it was in 2015,’ when the recession reached its worst point, with a GDP retraction of 4 percent. The Institute surveyed Brazilians of the so-called social C and D classes: those whose household monthly income is lower than 4,591 BRL.

Even if food prices decreased by 4.6 percent between January and October 2017, people of lower income continue to feel the perverse effects of a mounting unemployment rate among the most vulnerable neighborhoods in Brazil’s largest urban centers. When asked if prices have stopped rising, only 6 percent of respondents said ‘yes’. Meanwhile, two-thirds of lower-income Brazilians disagreed with that statement.

Most of those surveyed revealed that they live in fear of losing their jobs. They also cited difficulties in their ability to save money for emergencies.