Brazil opened 4.6 million new small businesses from January to November 2025, a number that already exceeds the result for 2024, when 4.1 million companies were created. The data show a 19 percent increase over the same period last year, consolidating the best performance since they began to be compiled.

Small businesses accounted for 97 percent of the companies opened in the country in 2025. Among them, 77 percent are individual microentrepreneurs (MEI), 19 percent are microenterprises, and 4 percent are small businesses.

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• Brazil registers record small business openings in first quarter.

The head of the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae), Décio Lima, says that the growth reflects entrepreneurs’ confidence in the economic scenario. According to him, the country is experiencing “full employment and inflation under control,” factors that encourage the opening of new businesses.

“Sixty percent of Brazilians dream of becoming entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is a gateway to inclusion, job creation, and income,” he said.

In November, the country registered the opening of 350,000 new small businesses, 28,000 more than in the same month in 2024.

Services lead new registrations

The service sector accounted for 64 percent of new businesses opened through November. In this segment, the opening of MEIs grew 24.5 percent compared to the same period in 2024. Next came commerce, with 21 percent of the total, and industry, with 7 percent.

São Paulo (29%), Minas Gerais (11%), and Rio de Janeiro (8%) were the states with the highest number of small business openings in 2025.

Brazil recorded its best results in income, inequality, and poverty since this time series began in 1995, according to a technical note from the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea). The study was released this Tuesday (Nov. 25) with data from the Brazilian government’s statistics agency, IBGE.

Over 30 years, per capita household income grew by about 70 percent, the Gini coefficient fell by nearly 18 percent, and the extreme poverty rate dropped from 25 percent to less than 5 percent.

Progress was uneven, concentrated between 2003 and 2014, and then resumed strongly between 2021 and 2024. After a prolonged cycle of crises between 2014 and 2021 – marked by recession, slow recovery, and the severe impact of the pandemic – per capita income reached its lowest level in a decade.

The trajectory changed from 2021 onwards: in three consecutive years, average income grew by more than 25 percent in real terms, accompanied by a significant drop in inequality.

“The results show that it is possible to intensely reduce poverty and inequality, but that these movements can also be interrupted or even reversed by various factors. And that it is important to combine different means to achieve these fundamental national objectives,” highlighted Marcos Dantas Hecksher, one of the authors of the study.

Researchers attribute the recent improvement to a booming labor market and the expansion of income transfers, both responsible for almost half of the reduction in inequality and the fall in extreme poverty between 2021 and 2024.

Programs such as Bolsa Família income transfer program, Benefício de Prestação Continuada (Continuous Cash Benefit - BPC), Auxílio Brasil (Brazil Aid), and Auxílio Emergencial (Emergency Aid) became more effective after 2020.

However, the impact of transfers weakened in 2023 and 2024 with the end of the expansion cycle, while the labor market continued to exert a strong influence on social indicators.

“Inequalities need to be combated through all public policies - not only through better targeting of social spending to the poorest, but also through a fairer distribution of taxes,” said Hecksher.

In 2024, the country recorded the lowest poverty levels in the series, yet 4.8 percent of the population lived below the extreme poverty line (USD 3 per day) and 26.8 percent below the poverty line (USD 8.30 per day).

More than 60 percent of the reduction in extreme poverty between 2021 and 2024 resulted from improved income distribution, according to the study’s breakdown.

The technical note points out that the progress observed in the post-pandemic period is likely to lose momentum with the end of the expansion of social welfare policies, making the labor market even more decisive in the coming years.

The authors warn that household surveys tend to underestimate very high incomes and some social transfers, requiring caution when interpreting the results.

The document concludes that the recent period represents an important structural change: after years of stagnation or regression, income, inequality, and poverty indicators have all improved simultaneously and rapidly.

Unanimously, the justices of the First Panel of the Brazilian Supreme Court decided this Tuesday (Nov. 25) to ratify the decisions of Justice Alexandre de Moraes, which ordered the execution of the sentences of Jair Bolsonaro and six other defendants for the coup plot that sought to keep the former president in power, even after he lost the 2022 elections.

After signing the arrest warrants, Moraes convened a virtual session to judge the case. The panel reached a four-to-zero vote to uphold the arrests. In addition to Moraes, the votes were cast by Justices Flávio Dino, Cristiano Zanin, and Cármen Lúcia.

Notícias relacionadas:

• Bolsonaro violates ankle monitor, sent to prison cell.
• Supreme Court upholds Bolsonaro’s imprisonment.

The top officials of former President Bolsonaro’s government were convicted of the following crimes:

• Armed criminal organization,
• Attempted violent abolition of the Democratic Rule of Law,
• Coup d’état,
• Damage aggravated by violence and serious threat, and
• Deterioration of listed heritage.

Earlier, Alexandre de Moraes recognized the final judgment of the case after the deadline for the defendants’ defense to file new appeals, which ended on Monday (24).

On the afternoon of this Wednesday (26), six defendants who are already detained will undergo custody hearings. These will be held by videoconference in the locations where they are serving their sentences. The proceedings will be conducted by auxiliary judges of Alexandre de Moraes and will serve to fulfill legal formalities.

Execution of sentences

With the procedural phase now concluded, Moraes ordered the execution of the sentences to begin. Below are the sentences and the locations where they are being served:

Jair Bolsonaro – former president of Brazil: 27 years and three months
Place of imprisonment: Federal Police Headquarters in Brasília.

Walter Braga Netto – former minister under Bolsonaro and vice-presidential candidate on the 2022 ticket: 26 years
Place of imprisonment: Military District in Rio de Janeiro.

Almir Garnier – former commander of the Navy: 24 years
Place of imprisonment: Navy facilities in Brasília.

Anderson Torres – former Minister of Justice and former Secretary of Security of the Federal District: 24 years;
Place of imprisonment: 19th Military Police Battalion of the Federal District, located in the Papuda Penitentiary Complex in Brasília.

Augusto Heleno – former Minister of the Institutional Security Cabinet: 21 years;
Place of imprisonment: Planalto Military Command in Brasília.

Paulo Sérgio Nogueira – former Minister of Defense: 19 years;
Place of imprisonment: Planalto Military Command in Brasília.

Alexandre Ramagem – former director of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency: 16 years, one month, and 15 days.
He is a fugitive in Miami, in the United States. The arrest warrant will be included in the National Prison Monitoring Database.

Jair Bolsonaro

Former President Jair Bolsonaro had already been in preventive detention at the Federal Police headquarters since Saturday (22) for attempting to tamper with his electronic ankle monitor.

Since August 4, the former president had been under house arrest, imposed as part of another investigation into the United States’ tariff hike on Brazilian exports, a separate case in which he is also under investigation.

After his custody hearing, the former president confessed to using a soldering iron to tamper with the device and said he had a breakdown caused by medication.

With the declaration of final judgment, Bolsonaro’s imprisonment will become definitive rather than preventive. 

Defense

The defense teams of the former president and the other defendants commented on the order to execute the sentences. See their statements below:

Jair Bolsonaro
Bolsonaro’s lawyers said they were surprised by the immediate execution of the sentence and argued that he still has the right to file another appeal.
According to the defense team, the Supreme Court’s internal regulations provide for the possibility of filing dissenting opinions.

Braga Netto
Lawyer José Luis Oliveira said that the defense received the decision to execute the sentences with indignation. Oliveira reiterated that the general’s conviction is “absolutely unjust and contrary to the evidence in the case.”
“Unfortunately, we see that the process is ending as it began: with the systematic violation of the right to defense,” Oliveira stated.

Augusto Heleno
Lawyer Mateus Milanez stated that the defense expresses profound indignation and affirmed that the process has deviated from its purpose due to political influence.
“Faced with illegality and persecution, our fight for the annulment of this flawed process and for the formal recognition of his innocence will be tireless and uncompromising.”

Anderson Torres
The former minister’s defense said it received the decision to execute the sentence with “serenity.” Lawyer Eumar Novacki reiterated that Torres had no involvement in the coup plot.
“He regrets that the numerous pieces of evidence showing he was not involved, directly or indirectly, in any attempted coup d’état were not even considered in the decision that sentenced him to a very harsh 24-year prison term,” the defense stated.

Paulo Sergio
The general’s defense said it received the decision to execute the sentences with “deep indignation.” According to lawyer Andrew Fernandes, the appeals he filed in the case were not dilatory.
“The motions for clarification were not dilatory. The defense’s acquittal arguments were not even considered, and what is most alarming is that part of the sentence lacks the necessary justification and proportionality. The motions for clarification were filed precisely to address these flaws,” Fernandes stated.

The news report is attempting to reach Admiral Almir Garnier’s defense team for comment.