Fiscal Balance (consolidated public sector) in Brazil

Measures the fiscal balance of Brazil's consolidated public sector (central government, state and municipal governments and state-owned enterprises): the difference between public revenue and spending. The nominal result includes debt interest payments, while the primary result excludes them, reflecting the fiscal effort before financing costs.

Compiled monthly by the Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) from its Fiscal Statistics, aggregating the cash flows and accounting indicators of the three tiers of government and state enterprises. The primary result is obtained by stripping net public-debt interest payments out of the nominal figure; a positive value means a surplus and a negative one a deficit.

It is the official benchmark for Brazil's fiscal health and for the government's compliance with its fiscal targets. A persistent primary deficit weighs on the public-debt-to-GDP path and can affect the risk premium, the real's exchange rate and the BCB's Selic policy decisions.

It is a volatile series month to month owing to one-off payments, the seasonality of tax revenue and dividend transfers from state firms such as Petrobras, so it is best read on a rolling 12-month basis. The figures may be revised in later releases.