BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s central authorities reported a pointy deterioration of its finances in February, Treasury knowledge confirmed on Tuesday, with elevated revenues unable to offset the damaging impacts of a big development in bills.
The central authorities’s main finances deficit reached 58.4 billion reais ($11.7 billion) in February, a 37.7% surge in actual phrases over the identical month a yr in the past.
Complete spending expanded by 27.4% over February 2023, to 190.9 billion reais, primarily influenced by 30.1 billion reais in court-ordered debt funds, mentioned the Treasury.
In the meantime, web income elevated by 23.4% on the identical foundation, to 132.5 billion reais.
The federal government had already mentioned that tax income for February had been a document for the month, helped by the taxation of closed-end funds and the reinstatement of federal taxes on fuels.
The federal government depends on a income enhance to erase the first deficit this yr, a objective that’s nonetheless seen skeptically by the market.
Final week, the Planning and Finance ministries worsened their projection for public accounts, however nonetheless saved it in step with the goal of a main deficit equal to 0% of gross home product (GDP).
The market in flip estimates that the deficit will attain 0.75% of GDP, in accordance with a central financial institution weekly survey.
Yr-to-date, the central authorities recorded a main surplus of 20.9 billion reais, smaller than the 38.3 billion surplus from a yr in the past, basically affected by increased spending.
($1 = 4.9840 reais)