Brazil’s new Finance Minister, Fernando Haddad, affirmed yesterday, Monday, in his inauguration speech that in the first semester of the year, he will present a proposal for a new “reliable” fiscal framework for the sustainability of public finances.
Haddad stressed that he would not accept a fiscal result this year that is not better than the current forecast primary deficit of the public accounts of R$220 billion (about US$41.3 billion).
“We will not accept a primary result that is not better than the absurd deficit of R$220 billion forecasts in the 2023 Budget,” he said.
“I assume with all of you the commitment to send still in the first semester to the National Congress the proposal of a new fiscal anchor that organizes the public accounts, that is reliable and, above all, respected and fulfilled,” he said.
The minister said there is no magic or financial juggling to solve the government’s accounts and that there will be no adventures during his administration.
Specialists point out the risk of the increase in public debt as one of the main challenges of the administration he is starting.
The Brazilian official said that the increase in the budget deficit in 2023 would be related to the electoral measures adopted by the management of the previous president, Jair Bolsonaro, during last year’s elections.
“With an exclusively electoral objective, they did away with the filters for selecting beneficiaries of cash transfer programs, compromising the austerity of these programs,” he said.
Haddad and 36 other ministers took the protocol oath on Sunday before President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva during the new government’s inauguration.