Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated Wednesday (Jun. 3) that Brazil will continue to seek new business partners to minimize the impacts of the trade policy adopted by the US. Lula chaired a ministerial meeting amid the announcement of new US tariffs on Brazilian products.

“We will seek out other partners. If they don’t want to buy, we’ll sell to whoever does. We won’t just sit around complaining. If they don’t want to invest here, we’ll look for someone else. Brazil is its own master. This is a democratic and sovereign country,” he told his cabinet ministers.

Notícias relacionadas:

• “We should have raised the tariff,” Lula says on US policy.
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On Monday (1), the US Trade Representative (USTR) proposed, among other measures, a 25 percent tariff on certain Brazilian goods imported by the US. The USTR report is the result of an investigation launched a year ago by President Trump’s administration into Brazil’s alleged “unfair trade practices” with the US.

Among other issues, to justify the measure, the agency accuses Brazil’s instant payment system Pix of “unfairly” harming US companies that provide electronic payment services – such as credit card operators MasterCard and Visa and WhatsApp Pay.

G7 summit

President Lula stated he will attend the G7 summit in June in France, which had not been part of his plans originally. The event brings together the leaders of Germany, Canada, the US, France, Italy, Japan, and the UK. Brazil will attend as a guest of the host, French President Emmanuel Macron.

“I wasn’t even going to the G7, but now I am. Someone needs to try to bring order to the house and stop this dismantling of multilateralism, democracy, and the devaluation of institutions. If the UN isn’t working today, we’re not going to fix the world by destroying the UN; we’re going to fix it by rebuilding the UN,” said Lula, reaffirming his support for strengthening the United Nations and reforming its Security Council.
 

Petrobras and Pemex - the Mexican state-owned oil and gas company - are negotiating a partnership for oil exploration and production in deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as joint refining and gas projects. According to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the collaboration is being coordinated between the Brazilian and Mexican governments.

At an event in Manaus, Lula said he received a phone call from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum expressing interest in the partnership. He added that Petrobras head Magda Chambriard will travel to Mexico to discuss the cooperation.

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“We are going to partner with Pemex and go to the Gulf of Mexico to see if our comrade Trump will interfere with Petrobras’s exploration at 2,500 meters [depth],” said Lula, referring to threats made by US President Donald Trump to intervene in Latin American countries.

Technical missions from both state-owned companies have been carried out in Mexico and Brazil to assess geological viability, reserves, and regulatory conditions in the region. “Petrobras is highly respected worldwide,” the president emphasized.

Investments

In Manaus, Lula took part in the announcement of Petrobras investments in the state of Amazonas. The company will invest more than BRL 2.8 billion to expand natural gas production in the Urucu Polo, in Coari, as well as in the construction of vessels at the Bertolini shipyard in the state capital.

The president argued that Petrobras should be used to generate wealth and drive the country’s development. “We have to make use of the potential of a company the size of Petrobras, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, where the government can appoint its management and board,” he said.

“The government doesn’t control Petrobras. We discuss Brazil’s priorities. It’s not just what Petrobras needs, it’s also what Brazil needs. If we don’t build the barges here, we won’t create jobs, we won’t generate technological knowledge, and we won’t train skilled professionals,” he emphasized.

For the first time, Brazil has entered the category of countries with “very high” human development. In 2024, the country reached 0.805 on the municipal human development index (MHDI), compared to 0.744 in 2012. The scale ranges from 0 to 1, with an indicator above 0.800 considered very high.

The information comes from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Brazil, which released a survey on Tuesday (May 26).

The index assesses parameters related to health and longevity, education, and income generation, broken down by race (black and white) and gender (women and men). The report covers the 13-year period from 2012 to 2024.

When the United Nations program began calculating this index 30 years ago, Brazil was a country with a low MHDI, that is, below 0.555.

Education

The factor that most contributed to the increase in the MHDI during this period was education – which rose from 0.679 in 2012 to 0.798 in 2024.

Betina Barbosa, coordinator of the Human Development Unit at UNDP Brazil, highlighted the Bolsa Família program, the federal government’s cash transfer program.

“It is the Bolsa Família program that removes a huge number of children from the workforce and provides them with the means and the obligation to attend school. So, here I see the direct effect of a Brazilian public policy,” she said.

Barbosa noted that the program, created in 2003, began to show results about ten years later, precisely when the first group of beneficiaries completed a satisfactory period of schooling.

Black Families

The improvement in education indicators during this period, Barbosa went on to note, is most significant among lower-income families, which are predominantly black families.

“This is where the black population begins to show better indicators and improved educational performance. Here, the policy takes a group that was previously excluded and brings it into the debate about human development. This has been happening in an upward trend since 2016,” she remarked.

She emphasized that there is no alternative for improving Brazil’s development without including the black population in the public policy agenda. The same applies to women. “These are two serious obstacles for Brazil – racial inequality and gender inequality.”

Health care and income

Barbosa explained that, among the sub-indices, public health care policy is the one that yields the most positive results for the country, having already achieved a “very high development” score in 2012 (0.829), due to the consolidation of Brazil’s public health care system, the SUS. Still, it is the one showing the slowest growth – it reached 0.860 in 2024.

The income parameter is growing at a slow pace, from 0.732 in 2012 to 0.760 in 2024, but is now at the high development level.

COVID-19

According to the UNDP, Brazil faced a systemic crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2022. In 2021, its MHDI stood at 0.757. Barbosa notes that the most concerning aspect was Brazil’s denial that this collapse would have negative effects on development.

“This denial and the lack of swift action to create public policies that combat systemic crises are serious,” she explained. “In terms of life expectancy, we have not yet recovered from the blow of COVID-19,” she added.

In this regard, child mortality is the indicator of greatest concern to the UNDP and is linked to public policies that require a rapid response. “There was not a sufficiently rapid response in the country regarding the impacts of COVID-19.”

The results of the survey were based on data from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey, conducted by Brazil’s statistics bureau IBGE, in partnership with the technical team and researchers from the João Pinheiro Foundation.

The financial market raised its 2026 forecast for Brazil’s official inflation from 4.92 percent to 5.04 percent. The estimate was published this Monday (May 25) in the weekly Focus bulletin by the Central Bank, which details the expectations of financial institutions for the main economic indicators.

The war in the Middle East and the resulting pressure on fuel prices and inflation led to an increase in the estimate for the 11th consecutive week. The 5.04 percent forecast is above the Central Bank’s target range of 3 percent, which has a tolerance margin of 1.5 percentage points.

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In April, food prices pressured official inflation, which reached 0.67 percent. According to the Brazilian government’s statistics agency IBGE, the 12-month accumulated index stood at 4.39 percent, still within the target range.

The inflation projection for 2027 edged up from 4 percent to 4.01 percent. For 2028 and 2029, the estimates are 3.65 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively.

Selic Rate

To achieve the inflation target, the Central Bank uses the basic interest rate (Selic) as its main instrument, which is currently set at 14.5 percent per year by the Monetary Policy Committee. At its last meeting in April, the committee reduced the Selic rate by 0.25 percentage points for the second time in a row, despite tensions surrounding the war.

In the document, the Central Bank stated that it is monitoring the conflict and the inflationary effects of a potential prolonged crisis. The Committee’s next meeting to set the Selic rate will take place on June 16 and 17.

GDP

Financial institutions’ estimate for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth this year rose from 1.85 percent to 1.89 percent. For 2027, the projection fell from 1.77 percent to 1.70 percent. For 2028 and 2029, the financial market expects GDP growth of 2 percent per year.

In 2025, the Brazilian economy grew by 2.3 percent, according to IBGE. Driven by expansion across all sectors, with agriculture as a key highlight, this result marks the fifth consecutive year of growth.

Last Wednesday (May 20), Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a decree aimed at strengthening the protection of women in the digital environment. The decree outlines the obligations of digital platforms regarding crimes of violence against women online and establishes tools to prevent and combat online violence.

Lula also signed four laws aimed at expanding protections for women and strengthening mechanisms to hold perpetrators accountable. The new rules:

    • create the National Registry of Offenders;
    • expand the circumstances under which an abuser can be immediately removed from contact with the victim;
    • tighten measures against criminals who continue to threaten women even after arrest; and
    • reduce red tape to speed up the enforcement of protective measures and court orders.

The signing took place during a ceremony at the Planalto presidential palace to mark the 100th day of Brazil’s national pact against femicide, launched in February by the federal government, the National Congress, and the judiciary.

Lula argued for the inclusion of misogyny and combating violence against women in school curricula, as well as initiatives that promote a cultural shift in gender relations. In Brazil, approximately 70 percent of cases of violence against women occur within the home.

“Men haven’t realized that jealousy is one of the most violent diseases we have [...]. There are people who are so jealous they won’t let their wives have a beer with friends after work, go to a soccer game, or go alone to a concert or the theater. This needs to be addressed,” said the president. “How are we going to overcome this problem if not through education?” he added.

National pact

The national pact against femicide calls for coordinated and ongoing action among the three branches of government. It also recognizes that violence against women in the country constitutes a structural crisis that cannot be addressed through isolated measures.

“What we are demonstrating here is that silence and inaction do not help. What we are realizing here is that when the state shows it is fulfilling its obligations, people begin to have confidence,” said the president.

He went on to emphasize that the problem does not only concern the woman or girl who is a victim, but the entire community. “Everyone should feel violated when a 12-year-old girl is violated,” he argued.

Violence online

The decree on the protection of women in the digital environment establishes mechanisms to ensure that platforms fulfill their duty to prevent gender-based violence and act swiftly to address such situations.

From now on, companies must take action to curb the spread of crimes, fraud, and violence within their ecosystems and reduce any harm caused to victims, especially in situations involving the non-consensual exposure of nude images – even if created by artificial intelligence – of girls and women, as well as threats, stalking, and coordinated harassment.

The decree also requires platforms to maintain a specific, permanent, and easily accessible channel for reporting intimate content shared without consent, with a requirement to remove the material within two hours of notification.

In addition, companies must preserve evidence and information necessary for investigating and holding perpetrators accountable.

The prohibition on the use of artificial intelligence to produce fake or sexualized intimate images of women is now included in the scope of preventive measures required of platforms. The move aims to address the rise of sexual deepfakes, which have also been made a crime by Congress.