Minister Rui Costa (Casa Civil) stated this Thursday (21) that technicians from the ministries involved in the spending cut package must finalize the fiscal adjustment guidelines by Friday (22) to present it to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ( PT), signaling that the final presentation should be scheduled for next week.
According to him, Lula will not give up on achieving fiscal balance, but he will not change health and education expenses, which were targeted by the economic team to comply with the same rules as the fiscal framework.
“He has already defined that he will not change investment in health and education, which he considers essential. […] Tomorrow [sexta, 22] A new decision will be made by the Budget Execution Board (JEO) making a new adjustment to this year’s budget. Details are being finalized today [21]we are strictly following compliance with the fiscal framework in what the president says he approved and will comply with this law”, said Rui Costa in an interview with GloboNews.
According to him, the financial market acts to anticipate possible future misalignments of public accounts with the budget, which causes the Central Bank to raise the basic interest rate, but in a “speculative way”. This is a constant complaint from the government due to distrust of the commitment to comply with the rules of the fiscal framework.
“The main guidelines have already been given by the president, at this moment he is putting himself on paper and writing down the details”, highlighted the minister.
There is an expectation that Lula and Haddad will meet this Thursday (21) to agree more details of the cut, which will affect ministries such as Labor and Employment, Social Security, Social Development and Defense – which entered the package more recently and which, according to the minister José Múcio Monteiro, the Armed Forces agreed to “contribute” to cost containment.
Last week, Haddad said that social ministers – who even threatened to resign in the event of cuts – were convinced of the measures.
Negotiations have been going on for three weeks and have led to the package being improved with “more palatable” adjustments, according to the minister. He denied that the original proposal had been dehydrated.
