Brazil's public sector registers huge deficit in September

Brazil's public sector registered a primary deficit of 5.76 billion reais (3.31 billion U.S. dollars) in September, reversing a surplus of 5.04 billion reais (2.89 billion dollars) in the previous month, the Central Bank said Friday.

This year's figure is the worst for the month of September in the past eight years and contrasts sharply with the same period in 2008 when the public sector posted a primary surplus of 6.61 billion reais (3.80 billion dollars).

The Central Bank attributed the bad results to the 8.02 billion reais (4.6 billion dollars) deficit registered by the central government in September.

The figure was also affected by shrinking economic activity and a series of government tax cuts designed to stimulate consumption.

The local governments still managed to post a primary surplus of 1.72 billion reais (988 million dollars) in September and the state-controlled companies registered a surplus of 535 million reais (307.4 million dollars).

The public sector, including central and local governments and state-owned companies, registered an accumulated primary surplus of 37.71 billion reais (21.79 billion dollars) in the first nine months of 2009, or 1.7 percent of the gross domestic product.

The figures, however, are still much lower than that of the same period in 2008 when the public sector registered a 109.47 billion reais (62.91 billion dollars) surplus.

Source: Xinhua