Brasil

December 4, 2020

REGRESA

1. Federal government limits access and forbids vaccine sales, São Paulo will have mass vaccination

Although no start date has been set, the federal government has already decided that health professionals, the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions will be the first to have access to the vaccine through the public health system. The rest of the population, even those with the financial means to do so, will not be able to buy the Ministry of Health-approved vaccine because sales have been prohibited. The government says that it will approve the use of vaccines, without undergoing the normal full validation process, due to the emergency nature of the situation. The drugs will only be approved for sale following the completion of further testing.

According to Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello – who has had the coronavirus – the proposals that pharmaceutical companies have made to Brazil were “pitiful.” He says the government might purchase the Pfizer vaccine – which the United Kingdom will begin using beginning next week. Yesterday, São Paulo state governor João Doria promised to start a mass vaccination campaign in São Paulo in January. According to Doria, São Paulo will have 46 million doses available to vaccinate every inhabitant of the state by the end of February. The CoronaVac vaccine has been developed by Chinese lab Sinovac in partnership with Instituto Butantan in São Paulo.

Folha de S.Paulo: Vacinação começará com profissionais de saúde, idosos e indígenas
G1: Venda de vacinas ao consumidor ainda não está autorizada
Folha de S.Paulo: Vacina em SP será para todos a partir de janeiro, diz Doria
O Estado de S. Paulo: Propostas de vacinas são pífias, afirma ministro

2. Hospitals again nearing full capacity; Brazil averaging 544 daily deaths from coronavirus

Rio de Janeiro has the highest coronavirus mortality rate in Brazil, according to a study by scientific institute Fiocruz, which monitors the disease in the country. As of yesterday, the state had registered 131 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, more than the Federal District (129), Amazonas (116), Mato Grosso (116), Roraima (116), Espírito Santo (106) and Ceará (104). São Paulo, the state with the highest number of fatalities from the virus – over 42,000 – had an average of 91 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.

In the last few days, specialists and health authorities have warned about the increase in the number of hospitalizations. In Rio de Janeiro yesterday, 172 people were waiting for beds in ICUs in public health system hospitals. In private institutions, occupation rate was at 98%. São Paulo is facing a similar situation. In less than 15 days, occupation rates in private hospitals jumped to 84% from 55%. Brazil has registered over 175,000 deaths due to the coronavirus. The increase in the number of cases has been verified in 23 states and in the Federal District. Since last Thursday, an average of 544 people have died every day in Brazil.

O Globo: Rio tem maior taxa de mortalidade pelo coronavírus
Folha de S.Paulo: Internações em hospitais particulares disparam em SP
Folha de S.Paulo: 544 pessoas morreram por dia em uma semana
G1: Acompanhe notícias sobre a pandemia
IRRD Covid-19: Veja o mapeamento de casos no Brasil e no mundo

3. 3rd quarter GDP reveals record high growth of 7.7%, but still below expectations

The Brazilian Gross Domestic Product had a record growth of 7.7% in the third quarter of the year as compared to the three previous months. However, the growth was still below government and financial market expectations. It shows that the economy has not yet returned to pre-crisis levels and is 4.1% below what was verified between October and December in 2019. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the economy is currently back to the level it was in 2017, when it began to recover after the 2014 recession.

Economy Minister Paulo Guedes recognized that the growth was below expectations, but said the results indicate a strong recovery of the Brazilian economy following the most critical period of the COVID-19 pandemic. “It is the economy recovering. It is recovering in a V shape, like we said it would. There were revisions in previous quarters and due to that, results were a little below what we expected. But the fact is the economy is recovering in a V shape. It really is recovering,” he said. The quarterly growth rate of the GDP is the largest since 1996, but this is primarily due to the record drop from April to June this year.

Valor Econômico: PIB brasileiro cresce 7,7% no terceiro trimestre
Folha de S.Paulo: PIB é recorde, mas não chega ao patamar pré-crise
O Estado de S. Paulo: Guedes diz que PIB sinaliza retomada em V
O Globo: Com alta do PIB, governo defende fim de auxílio

4. Foreign capital investments in Brazilian stock market for November the largest in 26 years

The volume of foreign investments in the Brazilian Stock Market for the month of November was the largest ever registered since 1996. Foreign investors injected a net total of R$ 33.32 billion (USD $6.46 billion) in purchases and R$ 319.23 billion (USD $61.86 billion) in sales. This movement has halted the drain of foreign capital experienced over the last few months – aside from in June and October. Even with this change, the annual balance is still negative at – R$ 51.5 billion (USD -$9.98 billion).

Analysts say that the Brazilian Stock Market is going through a transformation period but claim that it is still too early to say whether the foreign investment trend will be long-lasting. From January to November, 25 new stocks have been made available on B3, the Brazilian stock exchange, while there were only 5 during the entirety of 2019. Also, in the last month, Ibovespa (the São Paulo Stock Exchange Index) had performed well and increased by 15.89%, its best performance since May 2016, when it grew 16.97%.

Valor Econômico: Bolsa atrai mais investimento estrangeiro
Folha de S.Paulo: Investimento estrangeiro na Bolsa cresce em novembro

5. Industrial production grows 1.4% above pre-pandemic levels

For the sixth consecutive month Brazilian industrial production registered growth, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), 1.1% from September to October. Thanks to these results, the sector is now 1.4% above the levels seen in February, before the COVID-19 pandemic directly affected Brazil. The production of capital goods is 3.5% above what was verified before the pandemic. Even with the results for October, the accumulated data shows that industrial production has declined by 5.6% over the past 12 months.

Out of the 26 industrial sectors that IBGE researched, 15 have increased production in October – especially manufacturers of vehicles, tow trucks and vehicle bodies (4.7%). Out of the 11 sectors that have reduced production, the food sector had a -2.8% drop after three months of growth. According to IBGE’s monthly research, October’s positive results are also largely due to the good performance in production in the pharmaceutical (4.5%), metallurgy (3.1%) and machinery and equipment (2.2%) sectors.

Valor Econômico: Produção industrial cresce pelo 6º mês seguido