Brazil is collecting unwanted records. In the third week of June 2020, it became the second country in the world to report 1 million cases of coronavirus infections and the second with the highest number of Covid-19-related deaths after the US, according to John Hopkins University School of Medicine. Worse, analysts believe these figures are an underestimate.
They also expect Brazil to plunge in a dire recession that would range from a 4.5% gross domestic product (GDP) contraction in 2020, according to Itaú Unibanco, to an 8% contraction, according to Bank of America. “There’s only downside risk,” says Claudio Irigoyen, head of Latin America research at Bank of America. Referring to the 2 percentage points on each side of the economic prediction, he says: “It’s more likely that it will be [a recession of] 10% rather than 6% in 2020.”