Brasília – The consolidated public sector (federal, state and local governments and state-owned companies) registered a primary surplus of R$ 16.224 billion (US$ 4.74 billion) in the first semester of this year, according to data from the Brazilian Central Bank (BC) released this Friday (31st). This was the worst result for the period in the historical series by the BC, which started in December 2001. In the first semester of 2014, there was a primary surplus of R$ 29.38 billion (US$ 8.58 billion).
In June, the public sector registered a primary deficit of R$ 9.323 billion (US$ 2.72 billion) against R$ 2.1 billion (US$ 613 million) of deficit posted in the same period of 2014. Last month’s results was also the worst of historical series.
Year-to-year ending in June, the public sector posted a primary deficit of R$ 45.692 billion (US$ 13.35 billion), which represents 0.8% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This GDP-related result is also the worst in the historical series.
The difficulties in cutting spending to increase revenues made the economic team reduce to R$ 8.747 billion (US$ 2.55 billion), 0.15% of the GDP, the target of the primary surplus (savings to pay interest rates of the public debt) for 2015.
In the first semester, the Central Government (National Treasury, Central Bank and Social Security) posted a primary deficit of R$ 1.911 billion (US$ 558 million), while state governments posted a primary surplus of R$ 16.426 billion (US$ 4.8 billion). For their turn, state-owned companies, not including Petrobras and Eletrobras groups, posted a primary deficit of R$ 1.159 billion (US$ 338 million).
Spending with interest rates over the public debt reached R$ 26.933 billion (US$ 7.87 billion) in June and R$ 225.870 billion (US$ 66 billion) in the cumulative period of the first semester. The nominal deficit, which includes the primary result and spending with interest rates, reached R$ 36,256 billion (US$ 10.59 billion) in June. In the first semester, these expenditures reached R$ 209.646 billion (US$ 61.28 billion).
The public sector’s net debt reached R$ 1.962 trillion (US$ 573 billion) in June, which means 34.5% of the GDP. Over May, the debt in relation to the GDP increased 0.9 percentage point. The gross debt reached R$ 3.588 trillion (US$ 1.04 trillion), or 63% of the GDP, with an increase of 0.5 percentage point over May.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
