Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Brazilian ultra-right President Jair Bolsonaro explained the termination of state subsidies to fight poverty by the fact that the country is "ruined" and he cannot do anything about the crisis due to the "press-inflated" coronavirus.

"Brazil is ruined, I, as a boss, can do nothing," said a former army officer.

“I wanted to change the tax cuts, but a press-fueled virus came,” Bolsonaro said.

The reform he talked about was a campaign promise to raise the level of tax-free income.

Bolsonaro attributes the country’s economic collapse to isolation measures taken by state governors to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Despite a sharp increase in the death toll, the country has seen a rise in Bolsonaro’s popularity thanks to emergency aid paid in nine months to 68 million Brazilians, almost a third of the population.

But those payments ended under pressure from markets worried about the country’s high deficit and debt.

The subsidies that saved millions of Brazilians from poverty have ended with the pandemic, which claimed the lives of nearly 200,000 people, only worsened, and the country, according to experts, may be "on the edge of a social abyss."

At the same time, the president’s statements are viewed by investment analysts "as a rhetorical argument for political preparation for cutting emergency spending and attempts to balance public spending."

“The situation is serious,” but “the main problem is not a lack of money, but a lack of a clear plan” in a country that still does not have a date to start Covid-19 vaccinations.

Meanwhile, the number of new infections and deaths continues to rise. Over the past 24 hours, 1186 deaths and over 57 thousand new cases of the disease have been registered in the country. This number is expected to rise sharply in the coming weeks due to the massive celebrations that took place over the Christmas and New Year holidays.