BRAZIL
Poking the Bear
In a bid to inject as much as $11.2 billion into its slowing economy, Brazil unveiled a plan to allow workers to withdraw up to 500 reais ($133) from a severance fund they can normally only access when they lose their jobs, buy a house or retire.
Some cash will also be released from a social security fund, Agence France-Presse reported.
President Jair Bolsonaro called it an “emergency measure” to boost an economy that is “not doing well,” adding that it will help around 63 million people with “debts and overdue water, electricity and gas bills.”
The move is expected to add 2.5 percentage points to GDP per capita over 10 years as well as create 3 million jobs, the agency said. But in the short term, the country is on the brink of recession after a contraction of 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2019. Economists forecast growth of less than 1 percent for the full year, and around 13 million people are unemployed.
The move comes shortly after the International Monetary Fund slashed its 2019 economic growth forecast for Latin America by more than half, Reuters noted.
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