“We are going to be one of the five strongest economies in the world”, says Guedes

The minister of economy, Paulo Guedes, said this Monday (26) that, in the coming years, Brazil will be among the five largest economies in the world. The speech was made at the SENAI CIMATEC event, in Salvador.

“We only have to trust ourselves, and our president has given this example of pride and confidence”, added the minister.

During the lecture, Paulo Guedes also highlighted the recovery of the Brazilian economy after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Guedes cited the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projection errors for Brazil’s GDP in 2020.

“The IMF projected that the Brazilian GDP would fall by 9.7%. I disagreed, I pointed out that we are living organisms, that models lose grip when there is a lot of uncertainty and big changes, like the ones that were happening. I humbly asked them, the IMF kept the forecast it had,” said the minister.

Guedes reiterated that the Brazilian economy fell by just 3.9%, a decline less pronounced than countries such as Italy, France, the United Kingdom, which saw a larger drop than Brazil, according to the minister.

Paulo Guedes once again called the errors of economic forecast for Brazil during the Bolsonaro government a “political narrative”.

“Our government was attacked in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night, for three and a half years, these are political narratives. It is the abstention crisis of those who are not in power, after thirty years in power,” said Guedes. The minister asked them to “observe the facts”.

“The first observation I would make is this: do not believe political narratives. Trust in Brazil, bet on Brazil, observe the facts. A quarter of deflation, the biggest deflation in history, three straight months of deflation, at the same time growth being revised upwards all the time.”, said Guedes.