Brazil Worst Budget Deficit Shows ‘Tougher Measures’ Needed

Brazil posted its biggest annual budget deficit ever last year, after President Dilma Rousseff cut taxes and boosted spending in a failed attempt to revive growth.

Brazil had a 2014 budget gap of 343.9 billion reais ($128.5 billion), or 6.7 percent of gross domestic product, compared with 3.25 percent deficit in 2013, the central bank said in a report today. The budget gap in December widened to 60.1 billion reais from 41.6 billion reais a month earlier. The monthly gap was larger than every forecast from five economists surveyed by Bloomberg, whose median estimate was for a deficit of 30 billion reais.