Conventional wisdom associates the two lost decades of economic stagnation in Brazil to macroeconomic imbalances and excessive budgetary deficits. This paper suggests that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the fiscal crisis of the state in Brazil was the result of the liberalization strategy that started in 1989, and was accelerated and complemented during the Cardoso administration (1995-2002). In this view, the fiscal crisis of the State resulted from the financial liberalization of the 1990s and the increasing burden of interest payments on public debt. The interest burden, in turn, meant that fiscal spending on social policy was squeezed, a result that is common to liberalization experiences in the periphery. The amount of social spending was insufficient during the Cardoso administration, and problems were not restricted to inefficient spending.
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Length: 18 pages Date of creation: Nov 2005 Date of revision: Publication status: Published in Latin American Perspectives, 34(5), pp. 81-91. Handle: RePEc:uta:papers:2005_11
Find related papers by JEL classification: E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy O10 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General O54 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Latin America; Caribbean
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