Brazil sets limit on government spending ahead of budget vote

SAO PAULO: Brazil's government will limit monthly discretionary spending to 1/18 of its proposed budget for 2015 until Congress approves the budget, according to a decree published in the official gazette on Thursday.

The widely expected measure reflects President Dilma Rousseff's focus on maintaining fiscal discipline in her second term, as her new economic team works to shore up government accounts and win back credibility among investors.

Congress does not reconvene until early February. A government official told Reuters on Tuesday of the pending measure, targeted at non-obligatory expenditures that totaled around 250 billion reais ($93 billion) in 2013.

The decree does not apply to constitutionally and legally mandated spending, disaster relief efforts and other non-discretionary outgoings.