Brasilia (AFP)
Brazil could be faced in a month with a "collapse of (its) economy", with food shortages, and a "disintegration" social, warned Thursday the Minister of Economy Paulo Guedes, a few weeks before the peak of the coronavirus.
"The alert is serious", said the minister: so far "the people have money in hand", but "in 30 days it could be that things start to run out on the shelves (des stores), that production be disorganized and that we enter a system not only of economic collapse but of social disintegration, "he warned.
The minister was referring to the impact of containment measures in force in many states in the vast country in an attempt to stem the spread of the virus.
Brazil sees its Covid-19 contamination curve progressing at a very worrying rate, and surpassed 135,000 cases on Thursday evening, with 9,146 deaths. These figures are also largely underestimated, according to the scientific community.
In large cities like Sao Paulo, Rio, Recife, or Manaus in the Amazon, the intensive care units of hospitals are already almost saturated.
President Jair Bolsonaro, who was with Mr. Guedes, reiterated his opposition to the containment measures imposed by a majority of governors, supported by the Supreme Court, in order to save lives.
"We know the problem of the virus, and we have to save lives," he said. "But there is a problem which concerns us more and more: (...) the question of employment, of the economy which is at a standstill".
"The fight against the virus cannot do more damage than the virus itself," said the president again. The head of state often downplayed the health threat, even calling the coronavirus a "little flu" for a long time.
Brazil, whose economy has still not recovered from the historic recession of 2015 and 2016, risks contracting its GDP by 5.3% this year, according to the IMF, due to the pandemic.
© 2020 AFP