It has alleviated concerns over uncontrolled growth of public debt under the administration, resulting in a boost in local markets and strengthening of the real currency against the U.S. dollar.
As it awaits congressional approval, the government has crafted a budget proposal that adheres to the still-effective spending cap, which has limited expenditure growth to the previous year's inflation since 2017 but has been breached multiple times.
Lula's
new rules
combine a more lenient expenditure cap with primary budget
targets with flexible bands. In line with this approach, the
budget bill has defined that the primary budget balance target
may vary by 28.8 billion reais up or down next year.
($1 = 4.9096 reais)
(Reporting by Marcela Ayres; Editing by Leslie Adler and Aurora
Ellis)