Brazilian state budget blowout?

October 28, 2010 12:04 AM

I was reading an article about fiscal responsibility legislation and the author referred to passing to (what I infer) was a spectacular budget blowout or deficit condition in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo. The article was dated 1996 so whatever it was, it would have been before that. Googling turns up nothing useful. Does anyone know anything about this, or have any pointers to any further resources (in English please)? Thanks in advance.
posted by Logophiliac to Law & Government (4 answers total)

Best answer: Could it be related to this? - NPR Planet Money 'How Fake Money Saved Brazil'
posted by azlondon at 12:58 AM on October 28, 2010

1998 Article on the economy of Sao Paulo state. Apart from that here's a start on economic problems in Brazil in the 80s and early 90s.. That and a bit of googling (a ton of stuff comes up for "1980s economic crisis Brazil" or "the lost decade Brazil") suggests the serious crises were in the 1980s and early 90s, that governments were essentially bankrupt in the early 90s, but things began to turn around after the introduction of the Plano Real in 1994. I'm largely assuming Sao Paulo suffered the same problems as everywhere else in Brazil in this period, but the first link would be your best start on that.
posted by Ahab at 2:21 AM on October 28, 2010

There's a Wikipedia article on the economic history of Brazil.
posted by slogger at 6:17 AM on October 28, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks everybody. I have the impression that the comments were specific to Sao Paulo State, rather than being part of any Brazilian crisis generally. FWIW, in the same sentence he mentioned the Australian state of Victoria, which ran a huge deficit for a while in the early 1990s.
posted by Logophiliac at 11:58 AM on October 28, 2010