Petrobras unmoved by campaign fuel price promises

Petrobras unmoved by campaign fuel price promises

Sao Paulo, 4 February (Argus) — Brazil's state-controlled Petrobras is defending its robust governance reforms post-Lava Jato and commitment to import price parity, just as presidential frontrunner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is pledging to dismantle the core of the company's market-based pricing.

With less than 10 months until the first round of the next presidential election, fuel prices have become a flashpoint for candidates offering solutions to a problem that, along with spiraling inflation, is eroding the purchasing power of Brazilian voters.

"We are not going to keep the price of gasoline in dollars," former president Lula wrote on social media this week. "It is important that shareholders receive their dividends when Petrobras makes a profit, but I cannot enrich the shareholder and impoverish the housewife who will buy a kilo of beans and pay more for gasoline."