The Brazilian Fiscal Plan

Walter Douglas Stuber and Ricardo Baraldi Macedo *

Brazil's government announced on October 28, 1998, the so-called "State Fiscal Stabilization Program" ("Programa de Estabilidade Fiscal"), an awaited fiscal austerity project aimed at controlling the country's fiscal deficit. For the purpose of "definitively making the State live within its budget", as declared by the government's economic team, two sets of initiatives were proposed: (a) structural/institutional changes to the existing fiscal regime; and (b) immediate-impact initiatives, compiled in a three-year cost-cutting plan denominated "1999-2001 Plan of Action".

Below we outline the main points of such Stabilization Program:

1. Measures of an Institutional Nature