Lula says that the economy “has not grown at all” in 2022 and demands investments from Petrobras

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) said this Thursday (2nd) that the Brazilian economy “didn’t grow at all” last year and that his government’s challenge is to make it grow again. Economists’ projections suggest that the advance of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) this year will be less than a third of that registered in 2022.

“Today the data for the last quarter of the year were published, you know, the Brazilian economy didn’t grow at all, nothing last year. So the challenge we don’t have now, comrades, is to make the economy grow again”, said Lula at the ceremony. relaunch of the Bolsa Familia program.

In the morning, the IBGE reported that the Brazilian economy shrank by 0.2% in the fourth quarter, compared to the previous three months. In 2022, however, GDP grew 2.9% compared to 2021. The prospects for this year are worse. The median of projections collected weekly by the Central Bank points to economic growth of 0.84% ​​in 2023.

Lula said that the economy depends on private and public investment to grow. For him, the government must promote development.

“It will only generate jobs if the economy grows. And for the economy to grow, there must first be private investment. And if there is no private investment, there must be public investment. It’s not that we want the State to do the things that the private sector has to do, but if the federal government doesn’t invest money to promote development, nothing will happen,” he said.

Petrobras investments

The president complained about Petrobras’ balance sheet numbers, released on Wednesday (1st). He criticized the volume of dividends distributed by the state-owned company and stated that it did not invest “almost nothing” last year. “Petrobras, instead of investing, decided to reward minority shareholders with R$ 215 billion. It had a profit of R$ 195 billion. And how much was Petrobras’ investment? Almost nothing”, he said.

According to the balance sheet, Petrobras invested US$ 9.8 billion last year, 12% more than in 2021. The value is equivalent to R$ 50.6 billion, considering the average dollar exchange rate in 2022. The growth, according to the company , is due to “payment of the signature bonus related to the Sépia and Atapu fields and greater investments in modernization and adequacy of refineries, in addition to expenses with maintenance of logistical assets”.

“Petrobras, which in our time was a company for the development of our country, is now a company that exports crude oil. That was not why we discovered the pre-salt layer”, added the president, without mentioning the corruption company during the PT governments, revealed by Operation Lava Jato, nor the losses of tens of billions of reais caused by refinery projects that were never completed.

At the event, Lula also defended companies and banks “they have to think about this country first, and then think about their profits or think about their shareholders.”