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AsiaOne
a day ago
- Politics
- AsiaOne
Catholicism shrinks in Brazil as evangelical faith surges, World News
RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil, the world's largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022 while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday (June 6) by statistics agency IBGE showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 per cent of the population, down from 65.1 per cent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 per cent last year, up from 21.6 per cent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million - the highest figure on record. The numbers may spell trouble to Brazil's leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose Workers Party has historically struggled to gain ground among evangelicals. A recent Quaest poll showed that while 45 per cent of Catholics approved of the Lula administration, only 30 per cent of evangelicals did. The share of Catholics in Brazil has been dropping since the beginning of official records in 1872, when residents could only opt between Catholic or non-Catholic, said Maria Goreth Santos, an analyst of IBGE. Enslaved people, who made up a huge share of Brazil's population at the time, were all counted as Catholics, regardless of their wishes, she added. Still, Catholicism remains the country's most popular religion - though the Vatican's dominance varies in different regions, with fewer Catholics in the Amazon region, and more in the Northeast. The new census data also revealed that the number of Brazilians who declare to have no religion rose to 9.3 per cent from 7.9 per cent, totaling 16.4 million people. Afro-Brazilian religions, such as Umbanda and Candomble, also gained ground, with the number of followers increasing from to one per cent from 0.3 per cent. [[nid:718734]]
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Lula's Falling Approval Is Making It Hard to Tame Inflation in Brazil
(Bloomberg) -- Opinion polls that showed President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's popularity slumping to all-time lows are complicating central bank efforts to engineer the economic slowdow needed to tame Brazil's persistent inflation. NYC's Congestion Pricing Pulls In $48.6 Million in First Month The Trump Administration Takes Aim at Transportation Research Shelters Await Billions in Federal Money for Homelessness Providers NYC to Shut Migrant Center in Former Hotel as Crisis Eases New York's Congestion Pricing Plan Faces Another Legal Showdown Disapproval of the leftist leader tops 60% in some of the country's largest states, including Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais, according to a Quaest survey released Wednesday. For the first time, it exceeded his approval in key Northeastern states that have historically been the bastion of his Workers' Party, including Bahia and Pernambuco, where he was born. With alarm bells ringing all over the presidential palace, Lula is demanding that his economic team come up with measures to boost his popularity, which has been heavily hit by a recent spike in food prices. Yet he's pushing for the same old recipe of his previous mandates, one that risks exacerbating the very inflation problem he needs to fix. So far, he's announced cash handouts to recently graduated students, an expansion in the offering of free medication through a popular pharmacy program, and flexible rules that will give more workers the right to make early withdrawals from the nation's severance indemnity fund known as FGTS. Those withdrawals alone could inject 12 billion reais ($2.1 billion) in the economy. And Lula keeps pushing for more, leading investors to believe the central bank led by Gabriel Galipolo will have no option but to keep raising interest rates, or at least delay cuts. The bank has already lifted borrowing costs to 13.25% in February and pledged a third straight full-percentage point hike next month. What Bloomberg Economics Says 'President Lula does not have many options left to boost growth – and popularity – without colliding with his commitment to fiscal and price stability. The best option seems to be to reinforce the fiscal commitment and not interfere with the work of the central bank. This would allow the real to appreciate, which would help mitigate food inflation and open up space for interest rate cuts, even if not in 2025. The big risk is trying to repeat old formulas that have failed in the past, with the expectation of different results.' — Adriana Dupita, Brazil and Argentina economist Brazil's swap rates, which price in market bets on the future of the benchmark Selic rate, rose across the board Wednesday. The contract maturing in January 2026 jumped 11 basis points in early afternoon trade in Sao Paulo. The real fell as much as 0.9% before paring losses, still one of the worst performers in emerging markets. It was also reflecting speculation about Lula's long-awaited cabinet changes, which kicked off with the replacement of his health minister on Tuesday. 'Acceptable' Slowdown After expanding 3.5% in 2024, Brazil's economic growth is expected to slow down to 2.3% this year, according to official estimates. Lula is already displeased by such a performance and could push for even more aggressive stimulus measures if growth forecasts fall below 2%, according to people familiar with the president's thinking. While members of the economic team have been warning the president that Brazilians see inflation as a bigger problem than economic activity, it's unclear whether he'll heed to the advice, one of the people said. All of them requested anonymity to discuss Lula's thinking. The Quaest poll shows Brazilians perceive a deterioration in the country's economic situation, mostly due to rising food prices. Trump's SALT Tax Promise Hinges on an Obscure Loophole Walmart Wants to Be Something for Everyone in a Divided America Meet Seven of America's Top Personal Finance Influencers China Learned to Embrace What the US Forgot: The Virtues of Creative Destruction Why Private Equity Is Eyeing Your Nest Egg ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg
26-02-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Lula's Falling Approval Is Making It Hard to Tame Inflation in Brazil
Opinion polls that showed President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's popularity slumping to all-time lows are complicating central bank efforts to engineer the economic slowdow needed to tame Brazil's persistent inflation. Disapproval of the leftist leader tops 60% in some of the country's largest states, including Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais, according to a Quaest survey released Wednesday. For the first time, it exceeded his approval in key Northeastern states that have historically been the bastion of his Workers' Party, including Bahia and Pernambuco, where he was born.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Lula says if Trump hikes tariffs, Brazil will reciprocate
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Thursday that if US counterpart Donald Trump hiked tariffs on Brazilian products, he would reciprocate -- but that he would prefer improved relations over a trade war. The Latin American giant is one of the countries that Trump has threatened with higher tariffs. "It's very simple: if he taxes Brazilian products, Brazil will reciprocate in taxing products that are exported from the United States," the 79-year-old Lula told a press conference. Lula, currently in his third term, said he would prefer to "improve our relationship with the United States" and boost trade ties with Brazil's second-largest trading partner after China. "I want to respect the United States and for Trump to respect Brazil. That's all," he said. Citing Trump's comments that he plans to take back the Panama Canal or get control of Greenland, Lula said "he just has to respect the sovereignty of other countries." Lula also underscored the global threats facing democracy. "For me, democracy is the most important thing in humanity right now ... Either we keep democracy working or we will have states more authoritarian than Hitler and fascism." Lula, whose country will host the COP30 UN climate talks in the Amazonian city of Belem in November, added that Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord was "a step back for human civilization." He said he did not want a summit where "measures are approved, everything looks very nice on paper and then no country complies," slamming wealthy nations for failing to meet previous promises to give billions of dollars to help developing nations deal with the fallout of climate change. "We want something very real so that we can know if we are serious or not about the climate issue." - Seizing back the narrative - The president held a wide-ranging press conference in the capital Brasilia, urging journalists not to hold back in their questions as his government seeks to reclaim the narrative after battling a wave of disinformation. After undergoing emergency surgery to stop a brain bleed in December linked to an earlier fall, Lula vowed he was fully recovered and had "the energy of a 30-year-old." With less than two years left of his third presidential term, Lula's approval rating has sunk to 47 percent, according to a Quaest poll published this week, with a notable drop in support from his key electoral base in the low-income northeast of the country. Lula said he was "not worried" about opinion surveys, and brushed off concerns about high interest rates and public debt. As expected, the central bank on Wednesday hiked the key interest rate by one point to 13.25 percent, despite a new bank president being appointed by Lula -- who has in the past criticized interest rate hikes. "The president of the central bank cannot make a U-turn in a stormy sea," Lula said, adding that he had faith in new bank chief Gabriel Galipolo who would have "autonomy to do whatever is necessary." Lula also sought to ease concerns over government interventions to lower food prices and vowed his commitment to "fiscal responsibility." His government is weighing reducing import tariffs on certain goods, and he highlighted the need to provide more financing to ramp up production, saying he was working on a plan with banks for "the largest credit program in the history of this country." Concerns over Brazil's ability to curb public spending in December sent its currency, the real, to record lows against the dollar. rsr-fb/nro
