Congress approves 2021 budget and $213 minimum wage
Brazil’s lower house and the Senate yesterday approved the 2021 Budgetary Guidelines Law—LDO in the original Portuguese—which should now be submitted to the president for his final sanction.
The document sets the Brazilian government’s targets and priorities for the coming year, includes advice on the drafting of the yearly budgetary law, and limits the budgets of the Legislative and Judiciary, as well as the Prosecution Service.
In the bill, the country’s minimum wage is corrected to $213.09 as of January. As it stands today, the minimum wage is worth $204.67. The change represents a correction based on the predicted cumulative inflation for the year, as gauged by Brazil’s National Broad Consumer Price Index (INPC). There was no actual increase. The law mandating a real growth—beyond inflation—became ineffective last year.
Primary deficit
The text approved Wednesday sets the fiscal target for the next year a primary deficit of $48.396 billion.
On Tuesday (15), the federal government altered the text sent to Congress in April, in order to expand the deficit target, originally estimated at $19.300 billion.
The new target indicates a $48.396 deficit for the Central Government (National Treasury, Social Security, and the Central Bank) for 2021, interest of the public debt not considered.
