Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday said that the country is now “broke” and that he was unable to do anything about it, AFP reported. He blamed the “press-fuelled” coronavirus for the disruption caused to the economy.

The state subsidies to fight poverty have now ended. These subsidies had kept Brazilians to fight the cash crunch amidst the pandemic. The virus has killed over 197,000 Brazilians and the toll continues to rise. 

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“Brazil is broke, boss, I cannot do anything,” the former army officer said, in response to a supporter, who greeted him in front of his official residence in the capital Brasilia.

“I wanted to modify the tax reduction table, but there was that press-fueled virus that we have there, that press without any character,” Bolsonaro said, according to AFP.

The reform would raise the level of tax-exempt income as promised during a campaign. Bolsonaro pursues his belief that the economic collapse was due to the lockdown measures that were taken by the state governors to fight the pandemic.

Even during the pandemic, Bolsonaro’s popularity kept rising because of the emergency aid that was paid out for nine months to 68 million citizens of the country – that is almost one-third of the entire population.

However, these payments had to end this month under pressure from markets. The country’s high deficit and debt were getting worrisome.

Marcelo Neri, director of the Center for Social Policies of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), had warned that the country might be ‘on the edge of a social abyss’

“No matter how strong the president’s words are, I see them as a rhetorical argument to politically prepare for cuts in emergency spending and trying to balance public spending,” said Andre Perfeito, of investment group Necton.

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“The situation is serious,” said Perfeito, who noted that “the central problem is not the lack of money, but the lack of a clear plan”. The country has still not fixed a date to start the vaccination drive for the coronavirus vaccine.

In the last 24 hours, the country has recorded 1,171 deaths and almost 60,000 new cases. These numbers are further subjected to a surge following the massive celebrations that took place during the holiday season, the health officials said.