Brazil’s Public Accounts Down, Lower Primary Surplus Target

By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – The consolidated public sector accounts in Brazil registered the worst primary deficit result for the month of November since 2001, with a deficit of R$8.1 billion, announced Brazil’s Central Bank (CB) on Monday, December 29th. At the beginning of December the country’s primary surplus target for this year was revised to R$10 billion, from the original 2014 primary surplus target, which had been of a little over R$80 billion.

Treasury Secretary, Arno Augustin, speaking to members of Congress’ Mixed Budget Commission on December 18th, said that the reduction of the primary surplus had been a choice made by the government to maintain important investments in the country’s economy.

“We will have a lower primary surplus because we have opted to maintain investments in sectors such as education, health and infrastructure,” stated Augustin at the Congressional session.

According to the Treasury official, despite the downward revision of the country’s primary surplus, Brazil is still one of the few countries in the world which will be posting a positive result.

According to the CB, in November, the federal government registered a deficit of R$6.7 billion while regional governments registered a deficit of R$1.8 billion. State-owned companies on the other hand registered a surplus of R$368 million during the month.

Data from Brazil’s Treasury Department shows that for the first eleven months of the year the total deficit of both federal and regional governments was of R$19.6 billion, in comparison to a surplus of R$80.9 billion registered during the same period last year. In a 12-month period (December 2013 – November 2014) there was a deficit of R$9.2 billion, in comparison to a R$28.6 billion surplus in the previous twelve-month period (December 2012 – November 2013).