Spending on civil servants in Brazil is higher than in the OECD

Administrative reform is one of the needs for a more optimistic scenario to prevail in the Brazilian economy and guarantee sustained growth in the coming years. “It will be something inevitable in this or the next governments”, says the chief strategist at RB Investimentos, Gustavo Cruz.

Annual spending on active and inactive public service in Brazil is equivalent to 13.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while the average for countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – known informally as the “rich country club ” – is 9.3%.

Since 1998, the only government to record a drop in spending on this item was that of Jair Bolsonaro. For this year, the trend is towards an increase, due to the granting of a linear adjustment of 9%. “It’s a considerable burden on public accounts”, comments economist Rafael Perez, from Suno Research.

He points out that one of the barriers to the discussion must be the strong lobby of the public sector, especially in the Judiciary and the Executive. But there is a favorable aspect: the administrative reform proposal has the support of the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL).

A project to contain super salaries in the public sector has been in progress in Congress since 2016. The Senate listed 39 types of extra income that fall outside the civil service ceiling, which is R$41,600, the salary of a minister of the Federal Supreme Court ( STF).

Nine were authorized by the Senate. The project went to the Chamber, which increased the number of salaries outside the ceiling to 32. Approved by the deputies, the proposal returned to the Senate, where it has been stuck since 2021.