By Richard Mann, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The federal government registered a primary surplus of R$6.54 (US$1,6) billion in April. Although positive, the result is the lowest for the month in 21 years, according to data released on Wednesday May 29th by the Federal Treasury.
The surplus is recorded when revenue is higher than expenditure – when the balance is negative, there is a deficit.
The “primary” result does not take into account what the government will still have to disburse to pay interest on public debt.
Despite the surplus, this is the lowest result for the month since 1998, when there was a R$ 6.377 billion surplus (corrected by inflation).
It also represents a real drop (considering inflation for the period) of 28.3 percent in relation to April of last year, when there was an R$ 8.684 billion surplus.
According to the Federal Treasury, the poorer performance of public accounts last month is attributable to the 1.6 percent real decline in federal revenue (after transfers to states and municipalities), which is explained by the delay in the resurgence of the country’s economic activity.
On the other hand, expenses also increased by 0.5 percent, pushed by social security spending and civil service payroll. In April alone, Social Security registered outgo of R$13.616 billion.