Brasília – President Jair Bolsonaro said this Friday (3) that the United States’ strike against a convoy in Iraq resulting in the death of an elite force commander of the Iran Revolutionary Guard, Qassem Soleimani, should impact fuel prices in Brazil. Bolsonaro ruled out the possibility of tabulating the price of the product to control the impacts and said he’ll discuss the matter with his economic team and the head of Institutional Security Office (GSI), general Augusto Heleno.
The attack also killed Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, deputy chairman of the Popular Mobilization Forcers, an Iraqi militia supported by Iran.
The US bombing on Baghdad International Airport may stir up tensions and cause repercussions all over the word. “We’ve received some intel [about the strike] during the early morning, and I’m meeting with Heleno [of GSI] to catch up with it before I can issue an opinion,” said the president while leaving Palácio da Alvorada.
Despite acknowledging concerns about impacts on the country’s economy, the government has no plans to intervene in fuel price policies, such as tabulations. “It will definitely impact. Then we’ll see our limit here, because it’s already high and, if it goes up, it’ll get complicated. But I can’t tabulate anything. We’ve done this kind of tabulating policy before and it didn’t work out. Now I’ll talk with those who really understand about the matter,” he finished.
Hike
Shortly before 2 pm (Brasília time), the oil barrel price reached USD 62.56 in New York, up 2.26%, and USD 68.10 in London, up 2.79%.
*With information from ANBA’s newsroom.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
