Brazil should end the year with a surplus of 0.4% of GDP, the first positive result since 2013

Brazil should end the year with a primary surplus equivalent to 0.4% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is the first positive result since 2013.

According to the interviewee of the program “A Voz do Brasil” this Wednesday (28), the executive secretary of the Ministry of Economy, Marcelo Guaranys, the performance is the result of two strategies: improvement in public spending and the business environment in Brazil.

“On the side of improving spending, we were concerned about carrying out the pension reform to generate a large economy for a long time, being able to free up resources to spend on other things”, he said.

“During that time, we carried out a fiscal reform: to improve the way public resources were spent and we carried out major privatizations, for example. Everything that we spend money on and we don’t need it, it’s not a good benefit for the people, the order was for us to hold it,” he said.

“On the business environment side, we cut bureaucracy, deregulated, improved regulatory frameworks with sanitation, electricity, gas, to allow more investments. Anyone who wants to invest can invest in the country,” he added.

Guaranys said that, despite the tax cut, the collection was higher thanks to the growth of the economy.

The executive secretary of the Ministry of Economy also took stock of the extra expenses with the pandemic. According to him, the Ministry of Economy tried to minimize the impacts of the pandemic from an economic point of view.

He mentioned the Emergency Aid “A huge program that we manage to distribute R$350 billion to more than 60 million people. That’s impressive. One of the largest income distribution programs in the world”.

He also mentioned the Emergency Employment and Income Maintenance Benefit (BEm) in which wage flexibility was allowed with the government’s contribution with part of the salary.

For companies, Guaranys cited the granting of R$149 billion in credit for more than 1 million companies. According to him, thanks to these measures, the country was able to grow after the pandemic, unlike other countries.

Another subject addressed was the reduction of taxes on fuel. “Congress made the states limit the ICMS [Tax on Circulation of Goods and Services], reducing the taxes charged on fuels for the people and we did our part too: we reduced the PIS/Cofins [Contribution for Social Security Financing], we held the taxation so that the price would reduce.”

To lower the price of products, he cited the 35% reduction in the Tax on Industrialized Products (IPI) for most items manufactured in Brazil. He also mentioned that products that had more impact on the basic basket had their import tax zeroed “Allowing imported products to come to lower prices,” he revealed, saying that the measures were aimed at containing inflation.

With information from Gazeta Brasil