Macroeconomic policies in response to COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil

Abstract

This article documents the macroeconomic policies adopted in Brazil to mitigate the contractionary effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on output and employment. We organize and discuss fiscal, credit and monetary measures adopted in the first year of the pandemic. Although there were no unified efforts of the Central Government to control the expansion of cases and deaths caused by COVID-19, Brazilian authorities have implemented a comprehensive temporary set of expansionist macroeconomic policies. We argue that the economic response was in the right direction but insufficient for economic recovery after the pandemic. In terms of policy implications, more cost-effective measures can subsidize policymakers in other developing economies in post-pandemic recovery.