Economy & Business - April 2026

When Fernando Haddad took on the job of Brazil’s finance minister in January 2023, he was greeted with widespread scepticism. Markets saw the former university professor and leftist intellectual as too weak and inexperienced, while President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s own Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) considered him too business friendly. Over three years later, after stepping down in March to prepare his bid for the governorship of São Paulo state, Haddad leaves a mixed legacy, one that reflects the complex political realities that he operated in.