Brasília – Brazil was unable to amass savings for paying interest on the public debt in August. On the contrary, the country’s consolidated public sector (federal government, states’ governments, municipal governments, and government-owned companies) posted a primary deficit of R$ 432 million (US$ 191 million), of which R$ 55 million (US$ 24.3 million) concern the federal government, R$ 174 million (US$ 77 million) concern regional governments, and R$ 203 million (US$ 89.8 million) concern government-owned companies.
It was the worst month of August since 2010 for government accounts, according to the head of the Central Bank’s Economic Department, Túlio Maciel. The deficit in August was far removed from the R$ 2.28 billion (US$ 1 billion) surplus posted in July and the R$ 5.42 billion (US$ 2.39 billion) surplus posted in June.
Year-to-date through August, savings for paying debt interest stood at R$ 54.01 billion (US$ 23.9 billion), a sum equivalent to 1.73% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, the surplus is down from the R$ 74.22 billion (US$ 32.8 billion, 2.58% of the GDP) posted in the same period last year. The primary surplus was R$ 96.54 billion in (US$ 42.7 billion) the same period of 2011.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
