Brasília – Extra incomes from pre-salt and the accumulation of funds that couldn’t be spent caused the Central Government (National Treasury, Social Security, and Central Bank) to meet the primary deficit target by far in 2019. As per figures made public this Wednesday (29) by the National Treasury, deficit reached BRL 95.1 billion (USD 22.6 billion) in 2019 from BRL 120.3 billion (USD 28.6 billion) a year before.
The primary deficit represents the negative result in public accounts disregarding the public debt interest payment. This was the sixth year running with a deficit in public accounts. Even so, 2019 result was better than 2014, when deficit had reached BRL 23.482 billion (USD 5,583 billion).
Despite the decline in deficit, the result was worse than expected by the financial institutions. According to Prima Fiscal – a survey by the Ministry of Economy released every month – the financial institutions expected a deficit at BRL 86.533 billion (USD 20.755 billion).
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
