Brazil's National Treasury Secretariat said Thursday that the South American country had a record social security deficit worth some 75 billion U.S. dollars in 2019, up 10 percent year-on-year.

The estimation covered the systems for private sector workers, with a deficit of 50.2 billion U.S. dollars, up 9.8 percent; armed forces personnel, with 11.1 billion dollars, up 7.2 percent; government public servants, with 12.5 billion dollars, up 4.3 percent; and Federal District public servants, with 1.2 billion dollars, up 5.5 percent, respectively, from 2018.

In 2019, the Brazilian government had a controversial bill on social security system reform approved by the parliament, which sets a minimum retirement age regardless of working years and raises the threshold for entitlement to a full retirement pension.

The opposition has criticized the new rules for imposing an undue burden on the most vulnerable groups of people. The government has said the reform aims to tackle Brazil's big social security deficit and ensure the sustainability of the social security system.