Brazil's Bolsonaro extends COVID-19 welfare payments key to popularity

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday extended until the end of the year emergency payments to help low-income Brazilians weather the economic fallout from the pandemic, a program that has boosted his popularity.

The stipend, for poor and informal sector workers who have been hard hit by the coronavirus crisis, will be halved to 300 reais ($55.63) a month, Bolsonaro told reporters in the capital Brasilia.

The assistance, which started in April, had previously been set at 600 reais and was costing the treasury 50 billion reais each month, leading to friction with Economy Minister Paulo Guedes, who is trying to contain a huge budget deficit.

Recent opinion polls show that the payments have helped raise the right-wing president’s popularity, even in the poorer northeastern region of the country, once a stronghold of the left.

(REUTERS)