Brazil Lays Out Bold Targets to Privatize and Balance Budget

(Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s Economy Minister Paulo Guedes on Wednesday laid out bold targets for selling off state assets and balancing the budget.

The University of Chicago-trained economist said on Bloomberg Television in Davos that revenue of $20 billion this year from privatizations as well as a pension reform would help slash the budget deficit from currently 7 percent of gross domestic product to zero.

"We won’t balance it permanently, for that we’ll need reforms," Guedes said in the interview.

The real gained nearly 1 percent against the U.S. dollar after Guedes spoke.

Guedes is accompanying President Jair Bolsonaro at the World Economic Forum in Davos. He is seen as the guarantor of market-friendly measures in the administration, pushing proposals to open the economy and downsize the state.

"We are 40 years late on the liberalization agenda," he said.

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