RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s promise to cut spending during a second term that began Thursday got off to a rocky start, as her new planning minister recanted a pledge to change how the country’s minimum wage is calculated. Minister Nelson Barbosa had told reporters on Friday, his first day in the post, that he planned to send Congress a bill changing the formula to be used to adjust the minimum wage starting in 2016. But a day later he published a note on the ministry web site saying the current formula will be maintained.
Barbosa was forced to backtrack after Rousseff received complaints from unions and ordered the retraction, newspaper O Globo reported.
Calls to the planning ministry outside normal business hours were not answered. The ministry press office did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.
