Government accounts have a deficit of R$53 billion in May

The government's accounts recorded a primary deficit of R$53.3 billion in April, reported the National Treasury this Monday (29).
The primary deficit occurs when revenues from taxes and duties fall below government expenses. If revenues exceed expenses, the result is a primary surplus. These values do not include interest on public debt.
➡There was an improvement in comparison with the same month last year, when a negative result of R$ 42.2 billion was recorded (value corrected for inflation).
➡This was also the worst result for the months of May since 2024, when a primary surplus of R$ 66.6 billion was recorded (with correction). According to National Treasury numbers, the worsening of the positive result is mainly related to the increase in expenses, which advanced at a faster pace than the growth in revenue.
According to the government, expenses had a real increase (above inflation) of 9.4% in May, to R$251 billion. The main increases were:
Free government expenses (+R$16.7 billion);
Social Security Benefits (+R$4.9 billion);
Other Mandatory Expenses (+R$2.0 billion).
Revenues registered a real increase of 5.5% in May this year, to R$198 billion. The good performance of the collection, in turn, is related to the growth of the Brazilian economy and also to the tax increases announced in recent years by the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).
Partial of the year
In the first five months of this year, according to official data, the government's accounts recorded a primary deficit of R$ 44.4 billion.
The worsening of the government's accounts in the first part of this year is mainly related to the anticipation of the payment schedule for precatório (amounts referring to court sentences) made in March, which increased the volume of expenses this year.
In the first five months of 2026, there was a real increase of 4.8% in net revenue, after constitutional transfers to states and municipalities, totaling R$ 1.06 trillion (without correction).
At the same time, total government expenses amounted to R$ 1.1 trillion between January and May of this year, with a real increase of 13% in the period (nominal values).
Fiscal target in 2026
For this year, the target is for government accounts to have a positive balance of 0.25% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), around R$34.3 billion.
According to the fiscal framework, approved in 2023, there is a tolerance interval of 0.25 percentage points in relation to the target central.
In other words: the target will be considered formally met if the government has a zero balance, or if it reaches a surplus of R$68.6 billion
The text, however, allows the government to remove R$63.5 billion in expenses from this calculation. And use these resources to pay, for example, precatório (expenses on court rulings).
With the band around the fiscal target and legal rebates, the government's official forecast is that its accounts will have a deficit of almost R$60.3 billion this year.
If the numbers are confirmed, the government's accounts should remain negative throughout the third term of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

Source: G1