Latin America Advisor

Anya Prusa, senior director at Dentons Global Advisors-Albright Stonebridge Group: “Social spending traditionally ticks up in an election year in Brazil for a simple reason: it tends to boost incumbent popularity. Against a backdrop of accelerating fuel and food prices, President Jair Bolsonaro is undoubtedly eager for any advantage as October approaches. This latest stimulus package is just part of a bigger government push to reduce the strain of high inflation and low growth on Brazilians’ pocketbooks, from the government’s Auxílio Brasil welfare program to the recent effort to cut fuel taxes. There are some signs that these earlier stimulus measures have helped to boost the president’s approval ratings: recent polls show that Bolsonaro has chipped away at the gap between himself and his top challenger, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, since the start of this year. However, while the margin has narrowed…”