Brasília – Brazil’s public sector primary surplus, the effort made to cover debt servicing, reached R$ 5.57 billion (US$ 2.7 billion) in July, according to figures disclosed by the Central Bank of Brazil on Friday (31). The figure includes savings made by the federal, state and municipal governments and by state-owned enterprises. The fiscal effort last month was lower than that recorded in July 2011 (R$ 13.789 billion – US$ 6.7 billion).
In the first seven months of the year, the primary surplus reached R$ 71.229 billion (US$ 34.7 billion), less than the result in the same period in 2011 (R$ 91.979 billion – US$ 44.8 billion). In the 12 months ending in July, the result was R$ 107.96 billion (US$ 52.6 billion), representing 2.51% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The target for this year is R$ 139.8 billion (US$ 68 billion).
The fiscal effort of the public sector was not enough to cover debt interest, which totalled R$ 17.435 billion (US$ 8.5 billion) in July and totalled R$ 128.462 billion (US$ 62.6 billion) in the first seven months of the year, as against R$ 18.797 billion (US$ 9.2 billion) and R$ 138.544 billion (US$ 67.5 billion) in the same periods in 2011.
With this, the nominal deficit, which includes the primary surplus and debt servicing, was R$ 11.866 billion (US$ 5.8 billion) last month and R$ 57.234 billion (US$ 27.9 billion) from January to July. In July last year, the nominal deficit was R$ 5.007 billion (US$ 2.4 billion) and in the first seven months of that year, R$ 46.565 billion (US$ 22.2 billion).
*Translated by Mark Ament
