Economy & Business - July 2026

The last time that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva opened the public purse strings to boost the electoral chances of his ruling Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), the economy grew by a whopping 7.5%. That was 2010 and the economic stimulus helped elect his protégé, Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016). In this election year, the former labour leader is again pushing a plethora of costly growth measures, this time to get himself reelected.