Brazil overcomes risk of fiscal collapse: Minister

Brasilia, June 26 Brazil came close to facing a fiscal collapse but the economy is now in recovery mode and only losses related to the Covid-19 pandemic will burden future generations, Economy Minister Paulo Guedes said here.

During a Senate hearing held by a congressional commission on Covid-19, Guedes on Friday stressed the general improvement in the economy, reports Xinhua news agency.

"We were hit and we spent a lot of money, but we have been regaining control of the situation. We were sinking fast, but we quickly came out of the abyss and now we are creating jobs," Guedes said.

"Brazil could have been facing a situation of fiscal collapse, but we managed to control that sentiment and we are now normalising everything again," he added.

The Minister confirmed that emergency pandemic aid for informal-sector workers and the unemployed will be extended for another three months, because by then the entire adult population should have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and the pandemic in Brazil should be under control.

"The expectation, in the words of the Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, is that (by October) we will be in an environment of pandemic control.

"That is the idea and that is what led to the extension of emergency aid until the end October," said Guedes.

In his presentation to Congress, Guedes presented the budgetary situation of the measures to combat the pandemic, and submitted a tax reform bill that raises the taxable minimum for paying personal income tax.

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