Abstract
The article presents an overview of public finances in the Real Plan: the approach that oriented the development of the program, the measures adopted, and the results obtained. Within the limitations of available data, it evaluates the validity of the assumptions made by the authors of the program and considers in a new light factors inherited from the previous years. It goes on to examine the course of the stabilization strategy adopted, particularly in the growth of public debt. Fiscal adjustment was presented as a precondition for the success of the program, but the numbers deteriorated after fiscal 1995, in spite of the improving trend in previous years. The measures adopted in the preparation and initial phase of the program proved to be insufficient, and the government had to adopt several measures to contain the deficit in subsequent years, despite large increases in tax revenues and privatization receipts. The analysis of these issues is essential to a diagnosis of the fiscal problems of the country and the development of alternatives for addressing them.