BNDES's profit in 2019 is due to the sale of assets.

On the day of Bebiano's death, Bolsonaro went to Twitter to celebrate news about BNDES's record profit. The result, in fact, had been announced a few days earlier (March 11) by the bank's president, Gustavo Montezano.

"Billions of dollars of public money that once financed dictatorships, the São Paulo Forum, and OTHER interests, today is destined for the development of all of Brazil. BNDES recorded a record net profit of R$ 17,7 billion in 2019. A growth of 164% compared to 2018," Bolsonaro tweeted.

Before the presidential team made that flamboyant tweet, they surely looked at the bank's profits in previous years to conclude that a favorable comparison could only be made with the results achieved by the bank during the disastrous administration of the coup-plotter Temer. 

Another thing the presidential tweet concealed was the fact that most of the profit came from the sale of equity stakes. In total, these sales yielded R$ 16,25 billion, with a gross profit of R$ 11,4 billion for the bank. Therefore, discounting the sale of shares, the profit would have been only R$ 1,45 billion. Discounting the gross profit from the sale of shares, the profit from operating activities is R$ 6,3 billion.

Since Bolsonaro himself provoked comparisons between the results and those of the Workers' Party administrations (referring to the financing of the São Paulo Forum, which is a lie), without, however, presenting the numbers, we will help him with concrete data so that he can disseminate the complete truth to his followers.

In 2013, BNDES had a net profit of R$ 8,150 billion. This amount, adjusted by the IGP index up to December 2019 – 41%, would be R$ 11,5 billion, with most of that being operating profit. In 2014, the net profit was R$ 8,59 billion. Adjusted for inflation, this also far surpasses the operating profit of 2019.

In reality, BNDES has always been a profitable bank. Only after the coup to depose President Dilma did negative results begin to appear. The headlines in the media at the time emphasized the losses. The groundwork was being laid for the bank to no longer play its developmental role in boosting the national economy.

"BNDES registers a loss of R$ 2,2 billion after 13 years of profit - Economy - Estado de Minas - August 13, 2016 · Bank registers a loss of R$ 2,2 billion between January and June, the first since 2003."

But the comparison that should bother Bolsonaro the most is the period when the BNDES was under the management of President Lula. The headlines at the time read:

"The National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) recorded a record net profit of R$ 9,9 billion in 2010, which corresponds to an increase of 47,2% compared to the previous year." [...] "BNDES triples in the Lula era and resumes development action" (oglobo.globo.com › economy).

The 2010 profit of R$ 9,9 billion also included the sale of equity stakes worth R$ 2,2 billion. The profit from operating activities was R$ 7,7 billion, which, adjusted for inflation (IGP) up to December 2019 (69%), corresponds to R$ 13 billion. 

BNDES's profit in the last year of Lula's government is more than double the operating profit, celebrated by Bolsonaro, of only R$ 6,3 billion in 2019.

Another important aspect to compare is net worth. In December 2010, this value was R$ 65,9 billion. The value adjusted for December 2019 is R$ 111 billion. 

The last information released about BNDES's net worth is from September 2019, with a value of R$ 100,92 billion. In other words, BNDES's net worth under Guedes and Bolsonaro's management decreased by more than R$ 10 billion compared to the last year of Lula's administration.

What happened with BNDES is the same thing that happened with Petrobras, which also announced record profits in 2019. The Institute for Strategic Studies of Oil and Natural Gas (Ineep) studied the company's balance sheet and pointed out the main causes of the profit: 1) the aggressive sale of assets, resulting from the divestment policy; 2) the sale of subsidiaries; 3) the growth in crude oil exports, resulting from increased production in the pre-salt fields; and, 4) the expansion of free cash flow caused by the drastic reduction in investments.

It's the same thing with foreign exchange reserves. Guedes burned through US$36,9 billion in 2019 (R$165 billion at the dollar exchange rate on 02/03/20) to pay off the equivalent of 0,4% of the gross domestic debt.

It had been known for some time that BNDES was a profitable bank. The Bolsonaro government spent almost an entire year attacking its employees, insinuating the existence of a "black box," spending R$ 48 million of citizens' taxes, only to conclude that there was nothing wrong with the bank's operations.

The fact that BNDES continues to produce positive results, despite the destructive efforts of Bolsonaro and Guedes, unequivocally demonstrates the technical qualifications of its employees, which, incidentally, is the norm in state-owned companies and the federal public service.

Bolsonaro is not a president. He is a puppet of Trump, used to keep us as the backyard of the United States in exchange for the support of the northern empire for Bolsonaro's plan to establish a dictatorship in Brazil.

Guedes is not an economy minister. He is a crook in charge of financiers to take away the people's rights and sell off public assets in order to increase the profits of a handful of billionaires.

For Bolsonaro and Guedes, governing means attacking the most vulnerable to give to the richest; selling the things that others produced as if they were the owners. They are a pair of parasites.

These two don't fool anyone anymore. Or rather, they only fool those who pay to be fooled or to fool others.

*Retired Federal Revenue Auditor. Member of the Tax Auditors for Democracy Collective (AFD)