Brazil Election: Flávio Bolsonaro Economic Team Gets a Pro-Market Reinforcement

BRAZIL · ELECTIONS

Flávio Bolsonaro has spent two weeks hiring the economists of his father’s government. The bet is that a recognisable pro-market bench can win over investors before Brazil votes on 4 October.

Flávio Bolsonaro speaks to reporters at the Brazilian Senate in Brasília. (Photo: Ton Molina/Agência Senado, CC BY-SA 4.0)

What Flávio Bolsonaro announced on 18 August

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro announced the new names on Tuesday 18 August, two days after Brazil’s official campaign start. He is the presidential candidate of the Liberal Party, known in Brazil as the PL.

The headline hire is Adolfo Sachsida, an economist who was mines and energy minister under former president Jair Bolsonaro. He had advised the campaign informally and now formally co-leads its economic plan.

Also joining were executive Lyvia Montezano, entrepreneur Carolina Ragazzi and energy economist Adriano Pires. Lawyer Alexandre Chequer, who leads the global energy practice at the Tauil & Chequer/Mayer Brown firm, completes the energy bench.

Ragazzi spent years at Goldman Sachs in São Paulo and New York, rising to vice president. Pires founded the Brazilian Center for Infrastructure and was once nominated to run Petrobras, the state oil company.

Who joined the Flávio Bolsonaro economic team

Three days later, on Friday 21 August, the campaign added seven more economists. The Flávio Bolsonaro economic team now counts eleven names around two coordinators.

The first coordinator is Daniella Marques, a former president of Caixa Econômica Federal, a large state-owned bank. The second is Sachsida, who was her colleague in Jair Bolsonaro’s Economy Ministry.

The seven newcomers include Alexandre Messa and Vladimir Kuhl Teles, both senior officials in that ministry. Alexandre Ywata ran its infrastructure secretariat, and Myrian Prado worked on privatisation.

From the private sector came Andrei Spacov, a financial-market economist with a Berkeley doctorate, and investment adviser Eduardo Cavendish Carvalho. Academic economist Arilton Teixeira completes the list.

Most of the bench traces back to Paulo Guedes, the Chicago-trained economy minister of the previous government. That is the point, because the campaign wants markets to read continuity.

What the Flávio Bolsonaro economic team is selling

The Flávio Bolsonaro economic team is drafting a platform whose Portuguese title translates roughly as “For Brazil to Beat Backwardness”. Its proposals run across nine themed axes, from public security to women’s economic independence.

The fiscal core is a new anchor based on the path of public debt relative to gross domestic product. It would replace the current spending framework, which many investors see as discredited.

Flávio has also promised a deep cut in the federal machine. He cites his father’s first day in office, when 20,000 appointed posts were eliminated by decree.

He wants to shrink the cabinet from 39 ministries under President Lula toward the 23 his father ran. Sachsida is tasked with designing a government-wide spending-cut programme and reviewing more than 1,000 regulations.

Another pledge is to revoke the 12 percent export tax on crude oil created under Lula. Flávio argues it raises fuel costs, and he compares it to Argentina’s failed export levies.

Why investors still need convincing

The hiring spree answers a specific criticism. Economists quoted by the Valor business daily say the platform identifies problems correctly but offers solutions they call generic.

The new advisers are meant to fix that, detailing proposals sector by sector. The Flávio Bolsonaro economic team will also carry the plan to business groups across the country.

The outreach to finance began earlier, in July. The campaign hired Luiz Felipe Trevisan, a former executive at the investment bank Itaú BBA, as a bridge to Faria Lima, São Paulo’s financial district.

Markets care because the race is close. Three August polls put Lula three to six points ahead in the first round, with runoffs inside the margin of error.

The family shadow over the campaign

For the Flávio Bolsonaro economic team, the harder test may be political rather than technical. The candidate’s surname is the brand, and the brand is in prison.

Jair Bolsonaro was convicted by the Supreme Court in September 2025 for plotting a coup after his 2022 defeat. He is serving a 27-year sentence.

Hiring his father’s economic staff signals competence to one part of the electorate. To another part, it confirms that a Flávio presidency would restore the old circle.

What to watch from here

The first test is detail, because the campaign says the team will now publish sector-by-sector proposals. That is where generic promises either become numbers or die.

The second test is the runoff maths. Brazil votes on 4 October, and a second round on 25 October looks likely if no candidate tops 50 percent.

The third is whether the market bench stays united. Campaigns under pressure often watch their economists drift back to the banks they came from.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources: Valor Econômico and Valor International (18–19 August 2026), Reuters (21 August 2026), Poder360 and Gazeta do Povo (21 August 2026).

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