A fresh look at Brazil’s public debt problem

Suggestions that Brazil’s government will raise welfare spending – and circumvent the spending cap in doing so – add to the evidence that there’s little appetite for the long-term fiscal squeeze needed to stabilise the public finances. Taken together with slower growth and higher interest rates, we think that the public debt-to-GDP ratio is likely to be on an upwards trajectory from next year. This feeds into our view that government bond yields will climb higher and that the real will weaken further from here.