Brazil’s public debt ends 2022 at lowest level in five years

According to the Ministry of Economy, the general government’s gross debt will end in 2022 at its lowest level in five years.

In the evaluation report of primary revenues and expenses published last Thursday (Dec. 22), the team of Minister Paulo Guedes projected a debt equivalent to 73.7% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at the end of this year, the same level as in Dec. 2017.

In the same document, the ministry raised from R$ 23.4 (US$4.5) billion to R$ 34.1 billion, the estimated primary surplus of the federal government this year.

This indicator reflects the difference between government revenues and expenses without considering debt payments.

It will be the first positive result for the Union since 2013, caused, in part, by extraordinary revenues.

For 2023, the Ministry of Economy prepared a budget that foresees the return of the deficit – in this case, of R$ 65.9 billion.

When Bolsonaro took office, the gross debt was 75.3% of the GDP. It reached this level after five consecutive years of high: between 2013 and 2018, due to the substantial increase in spending at the end of Dilma Rousseff’s (PT) government and the deep recession of 2015 and 2016, the debt jumped 23.8% of GDP.

In 2019, the first year of Bolsonaro’s mandate, gross debt retreated to 74.4% of GDP. In 2020, under the impact of the explosion of spending to address the coronavirus pandemic, the indicator reached close to 88% of GDP and ended the year at 86.9% of GDP.

Then, debt closed in 2021 at 78.3% of GDP and, according to the most recent data from the Central Bank, fell to 75.1% by October of this year.