Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said this Friday (30), in São Paulo, that Brazil could have a zero fiscal deficit, as early as 2024, if the government had not suffered some defeats in the National Congress. However, the minister reinforced, these defeats are understandable because they are the result of living in a democratic country.
“If we had approved 100% of what we proposed to the National Congress last year, we would have a zero deficit this year – and a sustainable one. But we had setbacks: ‘you can’t do this from one year to the next, you have to stagger it, you can’t end Persepolis’ [Programa Emergencial para Retomada do Setor de Eventos] this year’. So we postponed the results a little, but that’s democracy: it’s better to have a Congress that talks to you than a Congress that goes against your opinion”, said the minister, who participated this afternoon in the Conexão 50 event – Meeting of Franchising Leaders, promoted by the Brazilian Franchising Association (ABF), in the capital of São Paulo.
According to the minister, despite these setbacks, the government achieved good results with the National Congress. “Macroeconomically speaking, it would be better to make the adjustment once and for all, in one year. There is the liability in 2023 and, in 2024, the accounts will be adjusted. But it didn’t work out. But we did well in Congress. It didn’t work out, but we did very well and we were able to talk with both Houses,” he reinforced.
During the event, Haddad was optimistic about the Brazilian economy and said that, after a difficult decade, it could enter a cycle of sustainable growth, depending only on “small adjustments”. “I believe that the Brazilian economy can, with small adjustments and perseverance, enter a cycle of sustainable growth.”
According to the minister, Brazil is growing at around 3% and should maintain this pace in 2024. “We cannot accept growing less than the world average because our advantages are not the world average, they are superior to the world average. If we grow less than the world average, it is because we are doing something wrong,” he argued. Among these advantages, he highlighted, would be Brazil’s natural potential, ecological transformation and increased education of the workforce.
