Brasília - Minister Jaques Wagner, head of the Secretariat of Institutional Relations declared that "the page has been turned" ("página virada") on the recent differences of opinion between the ministers of the Casa Civil, Dilma Rousseff, and Finance, Antonio Palocci.

"Due to the nature of their work, this kind of dispute is natural. Rousseff deals with the execution of the budget and Palocci controls the budget. The important thing here is that the president has decided that the prmary surplus target is 4.25% of GDP - no more, no less. That is the end of the matter," said Wagner.

Rousseff (the presidential Chief of Staff) has publically called for more government spending which was rebutted by Palocci in congressional testimony, although he admitted that a more "sympathetic" attitude toward spending would not hurt.

So far this year Brazil is running a cumulative primary surplus of US$3.871 billion (R$8.553 billion), the equivalent of 5.97% of GDP.

Brazil's GDP, from January to October of this year, reached US$720.11 billion (R$1.6 trillion).

Translation: Allen Bennett