Brazil's primary public deficit fell to a three-year low of 14.424 billion reals (3.877 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2018, the country's central bank said Monday.

The figure, accounting for 0.43 percent of GDP, went down 59 percent from the same period in 2017 when the deficit reached 35.183 billion reals (9.457 billion dollars).

The results show that the public sector is on track to meet its fiscal target for 2018.

If the country's debt is taken into account, the deficit will balloon to 217.4 billion reals (58.44 billion dollars), with some 202.976 billion reals (54.563 billion dollars) paid in interest.

In the 12 months ending in June, the deficit including interest on debt amounted to 7.28 percent of GDP, a figure credit rating agencies pay particularly close attention to when assessing a country's risk.

The bank said the public sector's net debt reached 3.44 trillion reals (924.473 billion dollars) in June, or 51.4 percent of GDP.