BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s economy could grow 3.5% this year and may have shrunk last year by less than 4%, Economy Minister Paulo Guedes said on Tuesday, stressing again that a resumption of emergency cash transfers to the poor must be within a fiscal framework that ensures longer-term sustainability.
Speaking in a live online event hosted by radio station Jovem Pan, Guedes said the government is drafting employment and income programs to help the economy ease its way out of the pandemic, notably the job retention scheme which he said saved 11 million jobs last year.
(Reporting by Jamie McGeever and Gabriel Ponte; Editing by Leslie Adler)
