BRASILIA: Brazilian President Michel Temer said on Monday he was confident his proposal to cap public spending would be approved in Congress, but had no alternative plan to avert a fiscal crisis that threatened to further sink Latin America's biggest economy.
Temer was scrambling to get the three-fifths of votes needed in the lower house of Congress to approve the constitutional amendment. He met with dozens of lawmakers late on Sunday and gave leaves of absence to two of his ministers to cast votes on Monday. "This amendment is crucial for the country," Temer said in a radio interview. "We believe it is perfectly possible to approve it.
We are not even going to think of a plan B." Temer said the cap was needed to avoid tax increases that many analysts see as inevitable for closing a budget deficit that is on track to exceed 10 percent of gross domestic product this year.
If approved on Monday, the cap would still need another super-majority vote in the lower house and two more in the Senate for final approval.
The proposal to limit federal spending growth to the rate of inflation for at least 10 years is the main proposal in Temer's austerity agenda aimed at staving off a fiscal crisis amid Brazil's worst recession on record.
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