The Brazilian government had no time to prepare the market for the reduction of the target for the primary fiscal surplus (the budget balance before interest payments) from 1.2 per cent of gross domestic product to 0.15 per cent. The harm-reduction efforts apparently include increasing the media exposure of the finance minister, Joaquim Levy.
In the past last few weeks, he was interviewed by Fernando Dantas, for Agência Estado, and by Miriam Leitão, for her programme on GloboNews. The minister also wrote an article for Folha de S.Paulo (English version here).
Mr Levy cautiously tries to show some optimism and sends messages to the Congress – with no explicit attacks.