New Funding Suspension Withholds R$348 Million from Brazil’s Education Ministry

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In recent months, the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) has experienced cuts of more than R$6 billion (US$1.5 billion), nearly 25 percent of the annual budget. Eight other ministries are also facing further cutbacks. The decree allocating the cuts, issued by president Jair Bolsonaro, was published on Tuesday night, July 30th, in a special issue of the Federal Gazette.

The Ministry of Education (MEC) suffered the second largest cut and will have R$348 million blocked.

Amid the worsening economic indicators and the reduction in federal revenue projections, the government had already carried out a budget blockade of almost R$30 billion in March.

In May, a wave of protests was triggered by the cut in funding for the education sector. That same month, the government announced the release of part of the MEC’s budget. Now, it has resumed cutbacks in education. Altogether, the cuts for the portfolio exceed R$6 billion, representing almost 25 percent of the annual budget, the largest cut among the ministries.

The decree allocating the additional suspension of R$443 billion was announced last week by the Special Secretary for Treasury, Waldery Rodrigues. Initially, the government would need to block R$2.252 billion, but the economic team used R$809 million from an emergency reserve set up in March to reduce the contingency amount.

The government’s contingency plan aims to meet the target of a primary deficit (the negative result, excluding interest on public debt) of up to R$ 139 billion, set for this year. Three weeks ago, the economic team reduced the GDP growth forecast for this year from 1.6 percent to 0.8 percent.