Brazil's interim President Michel Temer said on Tuesday he would seek a constitutional amendment to curb public spending, as his government unveiled a raft of austerity measures to plug a record fiscal deficit and regain investors' confidence. Temer told congressional leaders that the amendment would limit growth in primary government spending before debt payments, to the rate of inflation from the previous year. He warned, however, that recovery would take some time.

"We will not pull the country out of this crisis in a period of twelve days or in one, two, or three months. We will take some time. But if we arrive together as a government to 2018, and can hand the country over to calm elections, we will have done our job adequately," said Michel Temer interim President Brazil.

Temer said these measures are the best way to bring down high interest rates and restore the country's credit standing as it struggles with its deepest recession in decades. Brazil lost its coveted investment grade rating in December and the central bank's benchmark interest rate stands at 14.25 percent. Temer said that the government had reached agreement with the state development bank BNDES for the early repayment of 100 billion reais, or about 28 billion U.S. dollars, owed to the Treasury.