Brazil’s Lost Fiscal Decade Is a Time Bomb Awaiting the Next President
- Obligatory spending accounts for over 90% of Brazil budget
- Brazil govt won’t post surplus until 2022 at earliest
Photographer: Dado Galdieri/Bloomberg
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Between rising homicide rates and near-record unemployment, Brazil’s next president will face a myriad of daunting tasks. Yet the one challenge that will most shape the country’s future is whether it can put its public accounts in order.
Policy makers got a fresh reminder last week of how dire the country’s budget situation is when the central government posted its biggest deficit on record for the month of March, excluding interest payments. Brazil’s entire public sector, including state-controlled companies, states and municipalities, recorded a primary deficit of 25.1 billion reais in the same month, the central bank reported on Monday.