Brazil Reduces Budget Target

July 22, 2015 — 6:09 PM BRT

Brazil will freeze an additional 8.6 billion reais ($2.7 billion) in spending and proposes to reduce the primary surplus target for its 2015 budget to 0.15 percent of gross domestic product, according to a government budget report.
The government previously targeted a primary budget surplus, which excludes interest payments, equal to 1.1 percent of GDP. It has already raised taxes on items from fuel to cosmetics and in May froze 69.9 billion reais from the 2015 budget to reverse last year’s deficit.
Yet fiscal revenue fell below government estimates in the first half of the year amid analyst expectations the economy will contract the most in 25 years.