Good morning! Today, government pledge for cheap natural gas prices still nowhere to be seen. Small businesses in jeopardy as Bolsonaro strikes down debt renegotiation bill. And the new anti-vax icon.
Guedes’s promised “shock of cheap energy” stalls
The Jair Bolsonaro administration enters the final year of the president’s term, and the planned opening of the natural gas market remains stalled. The sector is focused on a legal battle concerning a move by Petrobras — Brazil’s oil and gas major — to raise prices sold to distributors by 50 percent, for contracts expiring at the end of 2021, affecting around half of the domestic market.
Why it matters. The government had promised to break Petrobras’s monopoly over the natural gas sector, providing free access to the entire natural gas infrastructure that already exists. That would bring a “shock of cheap energy,” as Economy Minister Paulo Guedes advertised, but little has been done to this end.
Ripple effects. Industries are highly exposed to energy costs, and higher natural gas prices certainly mean goods will get more expensive. For the glass industry, for instance, energy accounts for one-quarter of all costs — and prices went up 40 percent in Rio de Janeiro...