Fiscal side and productivity challenge Brazilian growth

Valor Econômico debates future of country and hindsights with special edition celebrating its 25-year anniversary

Brazil grew close to 3% or more in the last four years, a considerable pace, but one the country is unable to sustain. Fiscal woes and nearly stagnated productivity, decades-long problems in the country, are holding back the economy from sustaining stronger growth.

“The government is by far the biggest debtor, generating a demand that pressures interest rates and creates a vicious cycle which needs to be stopped,” sums up former Central Bank president Armínio Fraga, currently a principal at Gávea Investimentos. “We are unable to create an efficient state, with resource allocations that justify to society the tax burden’s size,” says former Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) president Elena Landau.

In order to improve the fiscal side, analysts underscore the importance of enacting measures to control spending, which include decoupling pensions and welfare benefits from the minimum wage, as well as enacting a new pension reform.

A productivity that grows too slowly, except with agribusiness, represents another problem. Between 1995 and 2024, labor efficiency gains rose on average just 0.8% a year, according to FGV Ibre researcher Fernando Veloso. Given the weak efficiency gains, the economy is unable to grow faster without creating inflationary pressure.

Fiscal uncertainties and low productivity are some of the topics discussed in this edition of Valor Econômico, which celebrates its 25-year anniversary with a 96-page special section. Among other challenges discussed are education problems, energy transition, and corporate efforts.

“Since early on, the paper set itself out to exercise a prominent role for national development,” says Grupo Globo CEO João Roberto Marinho. “Valor helps promote the debate needed for enhancing public policy and contributes to improving Brazil’s business environment,” he adds. “We don’t have interests, we have values. And such credibility, built among so many temptations, is the pillar of everything,” says Frederic Kachar, generatl director of Editora Globo and Sistema Globo de Rádio.

By Valor — São Paulo

Source: Valor International

https://valorinternational.globo.com/