Brazil: Bolsonaro ended his term with the lowest public debt in more than five years

The country’s gross public debt closed in 2022, representing 73.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the lowest index in five years, according to data from the Central Bank of Brazil released on Monday (30).

The December result of the so-called General Government Gross Debt (GGDB) was the lowest since July 2017 – at 73.18% of GDP – and confirms a promise made by former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) that he would deliver the country with lower debt than he found.

At the end of 2018, the last month of the Michel Temer administration, the DBGG was 75.27%.n from

According to the Central Bank, the DBGG reached the R$7.2 trillion mark by adding the debts of the federal government administration, INSS, and state and municipal governments.

This amount fell 4.8 percentage points over 2022 because of the advance in nominal GDP, net debt redemptions, and the incorporation of nominal interest.

The consolidated public sector had a primary surplus of R$126 billion in 2022, down from R$64.7 billion in 2021.

The Union ended 2022 with an accumulated surplus of R$54.1 million after eight years of deficit.

“With the primary surplus of 2022, 1.28% of GDP, the consolidated public sector maintained the trajectory of improvement in the primary result observed since 2017, interrupted only in 2020, due to the economic and social impacts of the pandemic,” adds the Central Bank in a note released to the press.

Due to the expenses of fighting the pandemic in 2020, the gross debt jumped 12.5 percentage points, ending that year at 86.9% of GDP, according to the Central Bank.

With information from Gazeta do Povo