Government Freezes BRL 15 Billion from Ministries to Bring 2024 Fiscal Result to Tolerance Band Limit

247 - The Planning and Finance Ministries confirmed this Monday (21) the need to freeze BRL 15 billion in ministry funds to bring the central government's primary deficit projection in 2024 to BRL 28.8 billion, exactly the lower limit of the tolerance margin for the zero deficit target, reported Reuters.

The bimonthly revenue and expenditure report shows that it will be necessary to block BRL 11.2 billion in funds to keep federal spending within the limit allowed by the fiscal framework, with a real increase of 2.5% for the year. As a result, the government would end 2024 with a deficit of BRL 32.6 billion, equivalent to 0.3% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Since the fiscal framework allows a tolerance margin of 0.25 percentage points of GDP, corresponding to BRL 28.8 billion, the government will still need to make an additional freeze of BRL 3.8 billion.

Despite the cuts, the new estimate is worse than the last official government projection made in May, which pointed to a BRL 14.5 billion deficit without the need to freeze expenses.

In practice, the two measures announced on Monday imply cuts in the resources available for ministry spending. The official announcement of the affected ministries will be published by the end of this month.

According to official calculations, the government's net revenue, excluding transfers to states and municipalities, is expected to be BRL 13.2 billion below the level estimated in May, reaching BRL 2.168 trillion.

Regarding total expenses, the government's forecast is an increase of BRL 20.7 billion compared to the May estimate, reaching BRL 2.230 trillion.