Doing More with Less: How Can Brazil Foster Development While Pursuing Fiscal Consolidation?

IMF Working Papers, November 1, 2019

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Following a benchmarking exercise, the paper estimates spending required to reach satisfactory progress in the Sustainable Development Goals in the health, education, and infrastructure sectors in Brazil.
There is room for savings in education and health without compromising service quality, but large infrastructure gaps require substantial additional investment.
"Brazil can do more with less, but increasing efficiency of public spending will require substantial reforms."

Education: room for savings "up to 1.5 percentage point of GDP" without compromising the quality of services.
Health: room for savings "up to 2.5 percentage points of GDP" without compromising the quality of services.
Infrastructure: additional investments "for over 3 percent of GDP per year" are needed to close large infrastructure gaps in roads, water, and electricity by 2030.

Pursuing fiscal consolidation while fostering development will require improving public spending efficiency through substantial reforms.
Reforms should aim to capture the estimated savings in education and health and reallocate resources or mobilize additional funding to meet the infrastructure investment shortfall.
Addressing infrastructure gaps in roads, water, and electricity is essential to reach the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and will be the most financially demanding component.

Publication title: Doing More with Less: How Can Brazil Foster Development While Pursuing Fiscal Consolidation?
Authors: Valentina Flamini, Mauricio Soto
Publication date: November 1, 2019
Series: IMF Working Papers, Working Paper No. 2019/236
Pages: 23
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781513509358.001
ISBN: 9781513509358
ISSN: 1018-5941
Subjects: Education, Expenditure, Health, Health care spending, Infrastructure, National accounts, Population and demographics
Keywords: Brazil, Brazil's GDP, cost, cost estimate, development, fiscal policy, GDP Capita, GDP loss, generation capacity, Health care spending, Health expenditure distribution, Infrastructure, infrastructure gap, infrastructure quality, Infrastructure SDG cost, pf GDP, public spending, SDGs, South America, spending, spending ceiling, spending floor, WP

Source: IMF Working Papers — "Doing More with Less: How Can Brazil Foster Development While Pursuing Fiscal Consolidation?"