Brazil's central gov't Feb budget surplus down

Fri Mar 28, 2008 4:04pm EDT
BRASILIA, March 28 (Reuters) - Brazil's central government primary budget surplus fell sharply to 5.03 billion reais ($2.88 billion) in February from 15.35 billion reais in January, the National Treasury said on Friday.
The surplus widened from 3.5 billion reais in February 2007.
The strong fall was due to seasonally high tax revenue and a one-off dividend income in January, the Treasury said.
The central government's primary budget surplus for the first two months of the year was equivalent to 4.59 percent of gross domestic product, compared to 3.83 percent of GDP during the same period a year ago.
The primary surplus includes spending by the Treasury, central bank and social security system but excludes interest payments on debt and transfers to state and local governments.
The central government surplus feeds into the consolidated public-sector primary surplus, which is closely tracked by investors as a measure of Brazil's ability to pay its debts. The consolidated primary surplus, due out on Monday, also excludes interest payments. ($1=1.744 Brazilian reais)
(Reporting by Daniela Machado, writing by Raymond Colitt, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)