Jair Bolsonaro is moving quickly to try to boost sluggish growth and cutting the deficit in part by scaling back Brazil’s pension system.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s new government is moving quickly to impose changes to the economy intended to boost sluggish growth, while signaling plans to cut the deficit in part by scaling back Brazil’s pension system. Mr. Bolsonaro issued many presidential decrees on Tuesday after being sworn in ... The economy needs “more Brazil, and less Brasília,” Mr. Guedes said, referring to bureaucracy in the country’s capital.

The BBC added: Mr Bolsonaro, 63, won the presidential election by a wide margin against Fernando Haddad of the left-wing Workers' Party on 28 October. He was propelled to victory by campaign promises to curb Brazil's rampant corruption and crime. US President Donald Trump commended him for his speech on Tuesday, saying the US was "with" him.

Among the foreign guests at the inauguration were US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. During the election race in September, he was stabbed at a rally and seriously injured, taking more than a month to recover. What exactly did Bolsonaro promise? "Brazil will return to being a country free of ideological constrictions," he told Congress in the capital, Brasilia. "I will divide power in a progressive, conscientious and responsible way." His administration, he said, was "committed to those Brazilians who want good schools to prepare their kids for the job market and not for political militancy". Pledging support for the military and police, he said: "The national motto is order and progress. No society can develop without respecting these." On the economy, he promised to "create a new virtuous cycle to open markets" and "carry out important structural reforms" to tackle the public deficit. In an apparent reference to gun control, he said: "Good citizens deserve the means to defend themselves." On Saturday, he tweeted that he would issue a decree to allow citizens who did not have a criminal record to own guns. Speaking afterwards, he said Brazil would "start to free itself of socialism" and "political correctness".

More From The Wall Street Journal (subscription required):