Brazil’s gross debt ended 2023 with a rise in December – 02/07/2024 – Market

Brazil’s gross debt ended 2023 with an increase in December, when the Brazilian consolidated public sector presented a primary deficit larger than expected, according to data released this Wednesday (7) by the Central Bank.

The country’s gross public debt as a proportion of GDP closed December at 74.3%, against 73.8% in the previous month and 71.7% in the last month of 2022.

The increase on an annual basis was due, according to the BC, to the incorporation of nominal interest (+7.5 percentage points), net emissions (+0.6 pp), the effect of exchange rate appreciation accumulated in the year (-0.3 pp ) and nominal GDP growth (-5.2 pp).

Net debt was 60.8%, from 59.5% in November and 56.1% in December 2022.

Expectations in a Reuters survey were 75.0% for gross debt and 60.0% for net debt.

In December, the consolidated public sector recorded a primary deficit of R$129.573 billion, against a negative balance of R$11.813 billion in December 2022. The BC highlighted the impact of the payment of court orders, of R$92.4 billion, for this result. .

The deficit in the last month of the year was greater than the expectation of economists consulted in a Reuters survey of a negative balance of R$124.35 billion.

Thus, the consolidated public sector recorded a primary deficit of R$249.124 billion (2.29% of GDP) in 2023, compared to a surplus of R$125.994 billion (1.25% of GDP) in 2022, according to the BC.

The performance of the last month of the year shows that the central government had a negative balance of R$127.574 billion, while states and municipalities recorded a primary deficit of R$2.940 billion and state-owned companies had a surplus of R$942 million, according to data from the Central Bank .