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against which she had combatted during the election campaign, is considered by many
Brazilians as election fraud.
To all this are now adding the ever larger becoming corruption scandals, which are equally
paralising the economy as well as politics. A cartel of suppliers for many years was paying
bribery moneys to politicians and officers of Petrobras and other state owned corporations, in
order to get overly expensive orders safeguarded. Former managers of Petrobras and the
heads of the largest construction firms are in jail. Against dozens of politicians investigations
are proceeding. Most of them belong to the parties, which form the coalition government.
Permanently new cases are popping up into light. Alone the direct effects of the Petrobras
scandal will cost one percent of national economic growth.
The annual government deficit already exceeds 8 percent of GDP.
The central bank base rate was lowered too strongly and for too long.
More dangerous is the standstill of politics. The head of the government, ten months after her
reelection, is barely able of acting. Only 8 percent of Brazilians are still supporting Rousseff,
two thirds according to a poll even support her impeachment. Necessary savings measures,
which would save the creditworthiness of Brazil, are blocked in the parliament, although,
theoretically, the government has a majority there. In the discredited cast of politicians,
everybody is fighting against everybody. The ones try, to save their skin, the others hope to
get a political advantage in the chaos.
In the last days, leading politicians of the governing coalition, seem finally to look for a
compromise, in order to stop the threatening downward spiral of the economic and political
crisis. After the great hopes of the past decade, though, this presently is only all about limiting
the damages.
from Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, August 18, 2015.
Responsible
for translation: GEFIU, the Association of Chief Financial Officers Germany, translator:
Helmut Schnabel
IAFEI Quarterly | Issue 30 | 10