Brasília – The Union, states and cities economized 7.913 billion Brazilian reals in February, to pay part of the interest on public debt, according to the Fiscal Policy Report disclosed on Thursday (31) by the Central Bank. The savings of the Central Government (National Treasury, Central Bank and Social Security) totalled 2.530 billion reals, those of regional governments, 4.708 billion reals, and state-owned companies, 675 million reals.
This economy, denominated consolidated fiscal surplus, was lower than the 17.748 billion reals of January. The accumulated result for the year is 25.661 billion reals. Over the last 12 months, the primary surplus reached 108.089 billion reals, or 2.89% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the total goods produced by a country. The country target is to reach the end of 2011 with a surplus of 117.9 billion reals.
The BC report shows that interest payment reached 19.115 billion in the month (practically repeating the 19.281 billion of January). In the accumulated result for the year, the disbursement with interest totalled 38.396 billion reals, against 28.392 billion in the same period last year. Over the last 12 months, total expenses with interest have reached 205.373 billion, equivalent to 5.50% of GDP.
Eliminating expenses with primary interest, the country’s nominal deficit totalled 11.202 billion in February, reaching 12.735 billion reals in first two months. Over the last 12 months, ending in February, the accumulated deficit was 97.274 billion reals, which corresponds to 2.60% of GDP, estimated by the Central Bank at 3.736 trillion reals.
One US dollar is equivalent to 1.64 Brazilian reals.
*Translated by Mark Ament
