Tax & Spend
Brazil’s Balanced Budget Dream Is Running Into Revenue Reality
- Finance Minister Fernando Haddad promised zero deficit in 2024
- Congress is resisting measures to help raise new revenues
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Brazil Finance Minister Fernando Haddad has continued his public push for revenue-increasing measures that will help balance the country’s budget in 2024. Privately, however, his team is starting to acknowledge that he may break his promises and run a deficit next year.
Haddad, whose policy approach has helped soothe investor fears about leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s spending plans, needs $40 billion in revenue increases in order to turn an expected deficit of $29.1 billion this year into a balanced result in 2024. He has sought to implement a series of measures, including taxes on offshore companies, closed-end funds and dividends, in order to deliver on his pledge.