São Paulo – The federal government acknowledged this Tuesday (27th) that the budget should close the year with a primary deficit of BRL 51.8 billion (USD 13.31 billion). Previous estimates called for a primary surplus (which is the savings used to pay interest rates of the debt) of BRL 8.74 billion (USD 2.24 billion). This estimated surplus was the equivalent of 0.15% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). If this deficit is confirmed, it will be equivalent to 0.8% of the GDP.
The ministries of Finance and Planning said that the government already cut spending worth BRL 78 billion (USD 20.05 billion), however successive declines in growth estimations and revenues took the government to start working with an estimation that called for a deficit in the year`s budget. The report with the new budget forecast was forwarded to congressman Hugo Leal (affiliated with the political party Pros-RJ), narrator of the bill that changes the fiscal target.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
