Pandemic is expected to increase inequality in the country, according to IBGE.
The Gini index improved in 2019, reaching 0,543 compared to 0,545 in 2018. However, this trend is expected to reverse due to the pandemic. "We have millions of jobs being destroyed by the pandemic and we need a rapid response," stated the director of IBGE, Cimar Azeredo Pereira.
Rodrigo Viga Gaier, Reuters - Inequality in Brazil registered a slight decrease in 2019 compared to the previous year, before the coronavirus pandemic affected the country, likely reversing this trend and pushing many Brazilians into poverty, according to IBGE.
The decline in income concentration in Brazil would have been even greater were it not for the Northeast, a region of the country with high levels of poverty and the only one to show growth in the Gini index of average monthly real household income per capita last year.
The index for Brazil was 0,543 in 2019, compared to 0,545 in 2018. According to the methodology, the closer to 1, the more unequal a country is. On the other hand, the closer a country's Gini coefficient is to zero, the less unequal it is.
According to IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), the per capita household Gini coefficient, which considers income from work (about 70% of the total) and income from other sources, such as pensions, retirement benefits, welfare programs, rent, and other income, showed decreases in the North, South, Southeast, and Midwest regions.
However, the index rose more sharply in the Northeast, reaching 0,559 in 2019 compared to 0,545 in 2018.
"Labor income remained stable for the top 50% of the population, while there was a 15,8% increase for the wealthiest 1%. In other words, in 2019 there was an increase in the top income bracket, and this affected inequality," IBGE researcher Alessandra Brito told reporters.
"This issue of income in the Northeast is related to the characteristics of the labor market in 2019," he added.
In 2019, there was an increase in job openings in the Brazilian labor market marked by informal work, whether self-employed or without a formal employment contract. Traditionally, this type of entry into the market is associated with lower wages and a lack of social protection.
The Gini coefficient in Brazil followed a downward trend between 2012 and 2015, when the country was governed by left-wing parties, but even during the administration of Dilma Rousseff (from the Workers' Party), the index began to deteriorate and exhibit erratic behavior.
According to IBGE, between 2012 and 2015 there was a downward trend in the index on per capita household income from 0,540 to 0,524, which was reversed from 2016 onwards, when the index increased to 0,537, reaching the highest value in the series in 2018 (0,545).
The year 2020 is already marked by a wave of layoffs in Brazil due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The first signs began to be shown by the IBGE in the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD Contínua) in March, when the unemployment rate reached 12,2%.
IBGE will release a specific survey this month on the impacts of the disease on the labor market. "We have millions of jobs being destroyed by the pandemic and we need a quick response," IBGE director Cimar Azeredo Pereira told reporters.
In 2019, according to IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), the wealthiest 1% of the Brazilian population had an average income 33,7 times greater than the poorest half of the country's population. In 2018, this ratio was 33,8 times. This indicator showed a downward trend from 2013 (31,2 times) to 2016 (30,5 times), after which it began to grow again, reaching 31,2 times in 2017.