After a full day of discussions, the meeting to finalize the spending cut package was interrupted. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will resume talks with ministers at 2pm this Friday (8), at Palácio do Planalto.
According to the Ministry of Finance, Minister Fernando Haddad canceled the trip to São Paulo scheduled for this Thursday night (7). He will remain in Brasília this Friday, leading the discussions.
This Thursday’s meeting began around 9:30 am and was suspended for lunch. The president and ministers resumed the meeting at around 4:45 pm and interrupted discussions at around 6 pm.
Initially, the mandatory spending cut package was scheduled to be completed this Thursday. Minister Haddad had informed that the measures could be announced today, after a meeting between Lula and the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), to present the measures to be sent to Congress.
According to Haddad, the closing of the package depends on two “details” to be decided by President Lula. “I believe that tomorrow’s meeting [esta quinta-feira] it is a meeting that, due to the level of decision that will have to be taken by him [presidente Lula]these are really very simple things to decide”, said the minister.
Haddad highlighted that the economic team and President Lula met with all the ministries involved in the measures: Social Security, Social Development, Labor and Employment, Health and Education. The minister explained that the package will consist of a proposed amendment to the Constitution and a complementary bill.
Denied
This Thursday afternoon, the Ministry of Finance denied information about the supposed analysis of two fiscal measures, one worth R$15 billion, related to the areas of health and transport, and another worth R$10 billion. According to the ministry, this information does not correspond to what has been debated between the economic team, other ministries and the Presidency of the Republic.
After the official denial from the Treasury, the dollar, which had been rising during the afternoon, canceled the increase. The commercial dollar ended this Thursday (7) sold at R$5.675, stable, with a small increase of 0.02%. At around 3:30 pm, the price had reached R$5.71, the highest of the day.
