“Brazil was in a better place five years ago.” It missed the moment to improve its economy, says Paulo Sotero, director of the Brazil Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington. D.C.
The corruption case involving Brazilian oil and politicians has engulfed its economy in pessimism, experts say.
Brazilian investigators are unraveling a huge money laundering and bribery case centered around Petrobras (PBR), Brazil’s state-owned oil company. Dozens of politicians, some in Rousseff’s party, are accused of accepting millions in payments.
Related: Petrobras chief resigns amid corruption scandal
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Brazil’s currency, the Real, is losing value too. One U.S. dollar was worth about 1.55 Brazilian Reals shortly after Rousseff took office in 2011. Now one dollar equals 2.80 Reals, a concerning sign for a country plagued by hyperinflation during the 1980s and 1990s.
Many experts see Brazil eventually emerging from its current economic turmoil but they say the next few years will be rocky for Rousseff and Brazil.
“It means a couple of years that might be a little bit unpleasant,” says Harold Trinkunas, a Latin American expert at the Brookings Institution. The government, “can see the slowdown coming at them.”
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