Poverty rates spike in 24 of Brazil’s 27 states

During an online conference with investors, Brazil’s Central Bank CEO Roberto Campos Neto said the country’s gross debt and GDP in 2021 will surpass expectations. However, a new study by think tank Fundação Getulio Vargas shows that macroeconomic gains are not translating into an improvement of living conditions for millions of Brazilians.

Between Q1 2019 and January 2021, poverty rates rose from 25.2 to 29.5 percent in Brazil, increasing in all but three states — Acre, Pará, and Tocantins, which already had poverty rates north of 30 percent. Meanwhile, the rate of Brazilians in extreme poverty increased from 6.1 percent of the population in 2019 to 9.6 percent in 2021.

For economists, even with the return of the coronavirus emergency aid payments from April this year and the beginning of a recovery in the informal labor market, poverty levels are likely to remain higher than pre-pandemic measurements.

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