Good morning! Today, we try to understand why perceptions of inflation are so negative, despite lower headline numbers. A warning against the government’s abundant tax waivers. And a new proposal to settle disputes around the 2015 Mariana dam disaster.
☕ If you like our work and want to give us an extra boost, you can fill up our reporters’ coffee mugs. Supporters get exclusive perks! Find out more.
Another look at rising prices
![Almost half of Brazilian voters believe the government's policies have utterly failed to tame inflation. Illustration: Yellow_man/Shutterstock](https://brazilian.report/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/fabi_flickr_websummit-56-1024x683.png)
This week’s May inflation reading shows that Brazil’s “misery index,” the sum of the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate and the annual inflation rate, continues to go down. But Brazilians are still feeling the discomfort of high prices.
![](https://brazilian.report/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Mar-2024_-Brazils-Misery-index.png)
State of play. An April survey shows that 46 percent of voters consider the government’s anti-inflationary policies to be bad or terrible, even though 12-month inflation numbers are nowhere near their April 2022 peak.
👉 Why it matters. Headline inflation is always in reference to where prices were a year ago, but voters experience consumer price behaviors more intuitively, i.e., “I am paying higher prices than I used to for goods and services.”
By the numbers. Since January 2020, just prior to the pandemic, prices in Brazil have risen by...