MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil with record budget primary surplus in April/May

Brazil's budget primary surplus reached in April 23.5 billion Reales (approx 12 billion US dollars) following on an equally positive March, 19.4 billion Reales (approx 10.2 billion US dollars) reported the Central Bank.

This means the primary surplus as percentage of GDP in the last twelve months to April was equivalent to 4.22%, up from 4.08% in the last twelve months to March. The nominal budget deficit dropped from the equivalent of 2.46% of GDP in March to 2.25% in April. Similarly the net debt of the public sector in April was equivalent to 44.4% of GDP compared to 45% in March. The Central Bank information was released hours after President Lula da Silva said Brazil was committed to long term sound responsible economic policies that help keep inflation down. "Brazil is going through the best moment of its history since the proclamation of the Republic", said Lula da Silva in his program "Breakfast with the President", adding that "the economy could be growing faster, but that would be with inflation and I can assure we're going to grow more without inflation". The Brazilian president statement was partly to counter growing domestic criticisms about the "slow growth of the economy in spite of the good fundamentals", compared to other developing countries which have been expanding at faster rates such as China and India. "We're not going to play with the economy; there are no magic solutions, only responsibility and hard work when managing an economy", he insisted. The Brazilian economy grew 3.7% in 2006 and 4.3% in the first quarter of 2007 compared to the same period a year ago and 0.8% over the last quarter of 2006. President Lula da Silva who is committed to an orthodox economic policy since taking office in January 2003, in spite of his Socialist backgrounds, insisted he would do every thing necessary to keep high the credibility of the Brazilian economy. "Growth is important, but equally important is income distribution, containing inflation because having inflation under control means an extraordinary advantage for those who have fixed incomes or salaries", he added. Early this year Lula da Silva launched the Economic Acceleration Program which is geared to ensure a minimum annual growth of 5%, based on significant investments both from government and the public sector.