In this week’s issue: The most important facts of the week. Stalled infrastructure projects in Brazil. Brazilian presidential candidates in 2018 election hunt for VP nominees.
The week in review
- Truckers’ strike. No sector was spared from the negative effects caused by May’s 11-day truckers’ strike. The services industry, which accounts for over 70% of the wealth produced in Brazil, shrank by 3.8% in May. Industries produced 10.9% less, a drop only comparable to December 2008, during the global economic crisis.
- Congress. Brazilian lawmakers approved guidelines for next year’s budget, slashing austerity mechanisms and allowing, among other things, for pay raises to civil servants. The 2019 budget could have additional expenses of BRL 72bn, which would make the first year of the next government virtually inviable. Brazil’s primary deficit goal is BRL 159bn.
- Boeing-Embraer. Unions representing Embraer workers fear that, unless Embraer and Boeing make sure to develop new projects in Brazil (something neither company has guaranteed), Brazilian factories will be in jeopardy.
- Lula. Last Sunday, former President Lula was at the center of a judicial battle between a judge who wanted to release him from prison and those who originally sentenced him and intended to keep him behind bars. Superior Courts...