Brazil at a time of recession and austerity – The World

Le Monde | 30/05/2015 at 11:24 | By Nicolas Bourcier (Rio de Janeiro, corresponding)

The view is shared by all the experts: the economic activity of the first Latin American power goes bad and worse, has yet to hit “the well bottom” . The publication of the gross domestic product (GDP) for the first quarter 2015, Friday, May 29, confirms the failure of growth that hits Brazil for the fifth consecutive year.

With a GDP decline of 0, 2% in the first three months, a drop of 1.6% compared to the same period from January to March 2014, the country has, in Comparative annual figures, its worst result since 2009. Although this decrease remains below market forecasts which had forecast a 0.5% decline, she throws a new downside of the seventh world economy. What reduce accordingly the narrow scope of the new and very orthodox finance minister Joaquim Levy, author last week of a vast austerity plan 69.7 billion reais and confronted, even within the majority, an unprecedented revolt by supporters of a softer line.

Already, the government of Dilma Rousseff has planned for this year, a decline of 1.2% of GDP, higher even with the forecast of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects a decline of 1%. If this scenario is confirmed, this would be the worst result ever recorded in the last quarter century. “Everyone hoped the worst time of the activity would be in the first quarter , says the economist Paulo Gala, but confidence continues to …