RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The report on the budget execution of the states and the Federal District (DF), released Monday (Feb. 21) by the Brazilian Ministry of Finance (RREO), shows a primary surplus of R$124.1 billion (US$24 billion) for 2021.
The data is based on the documents of the federal entities published in the Accounting and Fiscal Information System of the Brazilian Public Sector – Siconfi – managed by the Ministry of Finance.
The amount recorded last year is 91.5% higher than 2020.
According to the report, all states and the Federal District recorded a surplus. The atypical scenario resulting from the pandemic contributed to this economic picture due to the request for a spending freeze demanded by the Union in exchange for providing funding to fight Covid-19.
Despite the uneven recovery process in some sectors, the reopenings boosted the states’ economies.
Mato Grosso (23%) and São Paulo (21%) were the states that achieved the best primary results in relation to their current net revenues (RCL).
In absolute terms, São Paulo (R$41.9 billion) and Rio de Janeiro (R$14.8 billion) had the highest growth, but this was to be expected given the strong industrialization of these states. They were lowest in Piauí (R$114 million) and Pará (R$498 million), but still with growth.
TRADE BALANCE
Also, on Monday, the Foreign Trade Secretariat (Secex) of the Ministry of Economy published that Brazil’s trade balance registered a surplus of US$837.1 million in the third week of February.
The figure comes from US$5.506 billion in exports and US$4.669 billion in imports during the period. The daily average of exports in this month was 23.6% higher than that of the same period last year until the third week (US$1.124 billion).
The agricultural export market was the driving force behind the result, accounting for 73.3% of exports, followed by the manufacturing industry with a 20.8% increase and the extractive industry with 7.3%.
The excellent result in revenues is also the result of the high exchange rate, which averages between US$5 and US$5.10 against the real.