Brazil gov't registers lower half-year primary deficit
Xinhua, July 31, 2015 Adjust font size:
The Brazilian central government registered a primary deficit of 1.598 billion reais (474 million U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2015, the lowest since 1997 after adjustment by the inflation rate.
The central government actually registered a primary surplus from January to May. But in June, it registered an 8.2 billion reais (2.43 billion U.S. dollars) primary deficit, causing the result for the first half of the year to be negative.
A drop in tax revenue was regarded as the main cause for the negative results. Expenditures remained stable in the first half of the year, but tax revenue for the period was the lowest in four years, due to a combination of the tax waivers carried out in the past few years and lower economic activity.
Brazil's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose only 0.1 percent last year and fell 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2015. The second quarter figures are yet to be announced.
"This is not the result we wanted, but we are working on it every day," local news portal G1 quoted Treasury Secretary Marcelo Saintive as saying. Endi