SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday urged state-run oil company Petrobras not to raise local fuel prices again, and compared the company’s profit margins to a “rape” of the country.
The far-right leader said during a weekly livestream on social media that a new fuel price hike by Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as the company is formally known, could bankrupt Brazil and cause what he called a “national convulsion”.
Petrobras pegs its fuel prices to international crude rather than subsidizing fuel for Brazilians, but many people have demanded that it limits price increases for gasoline and diesel as both have soared recently, hurting Bolsonaro’s popularity ahead of an October presidential election.
Petrobras was not immediately available to comment.
(Reporting by Gabriel Araujo; Editing by Leslie Adler and Lincoln Feast.)
