Brazil's central government primary budget surplus rose to 5.30 billion reais ($2.82 billion) in June from 4.69 billion reais in May, the National Treasury said on Monday. In June last year, the central government primary surplus was 6.07 billion reais.
For the first six months of 2007, the primary surplus totalled 43.79 billion reais. The result reflected a Treasury surplus of 64.87 billion reais, a social security deficit of 20.78 billion reais and a central bank deficit of 301.8 million reais.
The surplus over the first six months of 2007 was equal to 3.6 percent of gross domestic product compared with 3.5 percent of GDP over the first six months of 2006.
The primary surplus includes spending by the Treasury, central bank and social security agency but excludes interest payments on debt and transfers to state and local governments.
It feeds into the consolidated public-sector primary surplus, which is closely tracked by investors as a measure of Brazil's ability to pay its debts. The consolidated primary surplus, due out Tuesday, also excludes interest payments.
Brazil's government lowered its consolidated primary surplus target to around 3.8 percent of GDP this year after introducing a new methodology for measuring economic activity that raised GDP numbers.
In recent years, Brazil has maintained a consolidated primary surplus target of 4.25 percent of GDP. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has also signalled the government might lower the primary budget surplus target by an additional half a percentage point in order to increase investment in infrastructure.
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