Brazilian Government Will Unlock R$20 Billion by End of Year, Says Acting President

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Acting president Hamilton Mourão said yesterday, September 11th, that the government intends to release about R$20 billion (US$5 billion) from the budget by the end of the year. Mourão is acting as the President of the Republic this week while President Jair Bolsonaro recovers from surgery in São Paulo.

“The Ministry of Economy is the department that has the money, so I think by the end of the year, about R$20 billion should be released,” Mourão said to journalists at the Planalto Palace. He had given the information on Tuesday, September 10th in an interview for TV Globo.

The Ministry of Economy informed Agência Brasil that “they are working to develop the highest possible value and the deadline for the release has not yet been decided.”

The government announces the status and intentions of the Budget by releasing the Report of Evaluation of Revenues and Expenses every two months. The next report will be released on the 20th of this month and the other will be announced in November. With regard to this year’s budget, the government has allocated about R$33 billion.

The government’s fiscal target for 2019 is a primary deficit of R$ 139 billion for the Central Government – National Treasury, Social Security, and the Central Bank. The primary deficit is due to the lack of payment of interest on the public debt.