We all knew it would happen, but now it’s official: Brazil is once again in recession. Just a handful of years after barely emerging from its longest economic slump on record, Latin America’s biggest economy finds itself back in the red once more, as a direct result of the coronavirus pandemic. The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) announced GDP fell an eye-watering 9.7 percent in Q2 2020 — just above market expectations but still the worst quarterly result ever recorded.
Elsewhere, industry shrank 12.3 percent in the three months ending in June, followed by a 9.7 percent...