OECD Economic Surveys
BRAZIL
Executive Summary December 2020
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The COVID-19 outbreak has plunged the economy into a deep recession Raising spending efficiency is needed to address fiscal challenges Reviving productivity is the key for a strong recovery of incomes Well-designed training policies are key
2 . OECD ECONOMIC SURVEY OF BRAZIL – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Key recommendations Improving macroeconomic policies, governance and social protection
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Keep interest rates low until inflationary pressures become clearly visible.
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Apply fixed-term appointments for the Central Bank governor and directors and limit earlier dismissal to severe misconduct. Safeguard the budget autonomy of the Central Bank.
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Ensure fiscal sustainability by adhering to current fiscal rules, including the expenditure ceiling.
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Strengthen spending efficiency by reviewing civil servant pay structures, ineffective subsidies, special tax regimes and tax expenditures.
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Reduce budget rigidity by reviewing revenue earmarking, mandatory spending floors and indexation mechanisms.
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Index social security benefits to consumer prices rather than the minimum wage.
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Increase benefits and accelerate benefit concessions in the Bolsa Família programme, while withdrawing benefits only gradually.
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Consider creating the legal basis for executing sentences as of the second instance of appeal, or limit the number of appeals, including to the Supreme Court.
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Implement a dedicated whistle-blower protection law.
Making growth greener and more sustainable
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Build on past success in fighting illegal deforestation by strengthening enforcement efforts to combat illegal deforestation and ensuring adequate staffing and budget of environmental enforcement agencies.
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Avoid a weakening of the current legal protection framework, including protected areas, the forest code, and focus on the sustainable use of the Amazon’s economic potential.
Raising productivity
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Further simplify license requirements for starting a company and apply silence-is-consent rules and one-stop shops wherever possible.
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Reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers, starting with capital goods and intermediate inputs.
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Consolidate consumption taxes into one value added tax.
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Ensure the alignment of court decisions with precedence rulings of superior courts by linking judges’ promotions and salaries to compliance with the rules.
Improving skills, education and professional training
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Introduce a carbon tax in sectors not covered by the European emission trading system, and reimburse at least partially the proceeds to households and firms.
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Remove environmentally damaging fuel subsidies.
OECD ECONOMIC SURVEY OF BRAZIL – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . 3
The COVID-19 outbreak has plunged the economy into a deep recession COVID-19 caused severe human suffering and triggered a deep recession. Rekindling economic activity past the trough intensifies the urgency of addressing underlying policy challenges. Economic policies reacted in a timely and decisive manner to the COVID-19 crisis, supporting millions of Brazilians. But the pandemic will nonetheless cause GDP to drop by 5% (Table 1).
Figure 1. Ageing will slow Brazil’s growth potential
Table 1. The economy is in a deep recession 2020
2021
2022
Gross domestic product
-5.0
2.6
2.2
Private consumption
-6.2
2.7
2.2
Government consumption
-4.8
0.5
0.0
Gross fixed capital formation
-5.1
4.4
5.6
Exports
-2.0
-0.6
4.0
Imports
-14.3
-4.4
4.6
Unemployment rate
13.6
16.0
15.0
Consumer price index Consumer price index (Dec-on-Dec) Headline fiscal balance
3.1
3.6
3.2
3.8
2.9
3.4
-15.6
-7.2
-6.3
Primary fiscal balance
-10.7
-2.8
-2.3
Public debt (gross, % of GDP)
91.4
94.3
96.6
Current account (% of GDP)
-0.3
-0.5
-0.9
Source: OECD Economic Outlook (database).
A strong recovery from the recession will require long-lasting improvements in economic policies. A rising labour force and strong commodity prices will no longer underpin growth and public revenues. Instead, the boost to growth from demographics since the year 2000 will be fully reversed over the next 25 years (Figure 1). Productivity, which ultimately drives prosperity, will need to become the engine of growth, following decades of virtual stagnation. Without deep structural reforms to boost productivity, the recovery will be protracted and disappointing. Inflation risks have been contained for some time, but formalising the de-facto independence of the Central Bank could lock in this progress.
Source: OECD (2017), OECD Economic Outlook (database).
Financial intermediation is still limited with total credit around 50% of GDP, but the structure of financial markets is improving visibly. Directed lending operations, long at par with free credit, are receding, following a reduction of interest rate subsidies. This is allowing private banks and corporate bond markets to raise their participation in financial markets. Lending spreads are still high and point to scope for stronger competition in the financial sector, but an ambitious policy agenda aiming at reducing financing costs has been put in place. Deforestation is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and has recently rebounded. Current laws and protections have proven capable to reduce deforestation in the past and should be preserved. But they will only be effective when coupled with stronger enforcement efforts to combat illegal deforestation, which will require additional resources.
4 . OECD ECONOMIC SURVEY OF BRAZIL – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Raising spending efficiency is needed to address fiscal challenges Improving fiscal outcomes remains one of Brazil’s principal challenges given a high debt burden, to which the pandemic has added 15 percentage points of GDP (Figure 2). Fiscal adjustment must resume after the crisis, but can be achieved by improving spending efficiency with no need for higher tax rates or new taxes and without detriment to growth or inclusiveness. Plenty
of scope exists for reviewing tax expenditures, including ineffective subsidies to specific activities and special tax regimes, while a public employment reform could generate savings and improve public administration at the same time. Many current expenditures have increased due to revenue earmarking, mandatory spending floors or indexation mechanisms, shifting spending away from where it is most needed, including investment. Reforming mandatory spending items and indexation rules is inevitable to deliver the needed fiscal adjustment and to avoid breaking fiscal rules, which would trigger confidence losses and could derail the recovery.
Figure 2. Gross public debt has shot up
Source: BCB, National Treasury.
OECD ECONOMIC SURVEY OF BRAZIL – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . 5
Raising the efficiency of public spending will not be possible without building on remarkable past progress in the fight against corruption and economic crimes. Strong and autonomous enforcement bodies can ensure this, provided that the law provides a credible threat of prosecution. Large inequalities along several dimensions affect well-being. The richest 10% of the population earn more than four times as much as the bottom 40%. Inequality and poverty have fallen over the past two decades due to strong growth, improvements in education and social transfers. Social benefits amount to over 15% of GDP and are characterised by poor targeting, with almost half of transfers reaching the highest income quintile (Figure 3).
Reviewing current indexation arrangements could free resources for more efficient transfers and generate significant poverty reductions at a low fiscal cost. Well-targeted conditional cash transfers could be expanded and converted into a true social safety net. This would require accelerating benefit concessions in the case of dismissal and withdrawing them more gradually to strengthen job search incentives. This would support informal workers, which account for one third of employment and are not covered by unemployment schemes, and could revert the recent rise of poverty rates and inequality (Figure 4). Figure 4. Poverty and inequality have edged up
Figure 3. Social transfers are not well targeted Distribution of social transfer spending by quintile of the income distribution (1=lowest income quintile)
Source: IBGE.
Source: SEAE
6 . OECD ECONOMIC SURVEY OF BRAZIL – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Reviving productivity is the key for a strong recovery of incomes Realising Brazil’s potential and improving well-being and living standards will only be possible through ambitious structural reforms that boost productivity. With large parts of the economy shielded from competition, firms face limited incentives to become more productive. Reallocation mechanisms like entry and exit appear weaker than elsewhere, leaving many jobs trapped in firms and activities with little potential for improving productivity and wages. Domestic regulatory burdens and market entry barriers are among the world’s highest (Figure 5). A fragmented tax system gives rise to one of the world’s highest tax compliance costs. Moreover, a wide array of exemptions and special regimes reduces fairness and the redistribution effect of taxes. Infrastructure investment has fallen short of depreciation for years, which has made logistics challenging and costly.
Complex legal provisions give rise to excessive litigation and court congestion. Judicial decisions are slow and firms can find them hard to predict, adding to uncertainty and the cost of contract enforcement. External competition is hampered by high trade barriers that have cut off Brazil from the opportunities of international trade (Figure 6). Trade barriers are even higher for capital goods and intermediate inputs, elevating domestic production costs. Figure 6. Average tariff rates are high
Figure 5. Product market regulation hampers competition PMR indicator
Source: Wits.
Source: OECD PMR Indicators Database.
OECD ECONOMIC SURVEY OF BRAZIL – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . 7
Well-designed training policies are key Deeper integration into the global economy and rising domestic competition would boost productivity, including by facilitating the movement of jobs towards more productive firms and activities. But these structural changes create challenges for workers. Well-designed training and education policies can go a long way to help workers master the transition. Opportunities for skill upgrading will facilitate the move into new and better-paying jobs and strengthen productivity at the same time. Scaling up training policies can be a highly effective way to mitigate local employment effects in trade-exposed regions if course content is aligned with skill demands in local labour markets. Strengthening incentives for training institutions to raise employability of
participants can help to achieve a better alignment with market demand. Facilitating a better adoption of vocational content in secondary education could also help to prepare youths effectively for a changing economic environment. Together with an expansion of early-childhood education, this could reduce early drop-out rates and foster inclusiveness.
OECD Economic Surveys
BRAZIL The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe human suffering and triggered a deep recession in Brazil. Economic policies reacted in a timely and decisive manner to the crisis, supporting millions of Brazilians. But a strong and inclusive recovery from the recession will require long-lasting improvements in economic policies. Improving fiscal outcomes remains one of Brazil’s principal challenges given a high debt burden, to which the pandemic has added significantly. Public spending will need to become more efficient, including by building on past progress in the fight against corruption and economic crimes. Social protection can be strengthened through a better focus on the most effective policies and benefits, which could allow significant reductions in inequality and poverty. Stronger growth will hinge on raising productivity, which has been virtually stagnant for decades. This requires addressing underlying policy challenges, including reducing regulatory burdens, reforming taxes, strengthening judicial efficiency and fostering a stronger integration into the global economy. Raising productivity implies reallocations and structural changes in the economy, which should be accompanied by well-designed training and education policies. Training with a strong focus on local skill demand can help workers master the transition and seize new opportunities to move into better jobs. SPECIAL FEATURES: BOOSTING PRODUCTIVITY; SKILLS POLICIES TO FACILITATE STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT
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