Temer's failure on Brazil pension reform leaves tricky task to successor

Brazil's President Michel Temer attends a ceremony in Itaguai Naval Complex, near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil February 20, 2018. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

BRASILIA (Reuters) - President Michel Temer's decision to throw in the towel on reforming Brazil's loss-making pension system leaves the unpopular measure as a campaign issue for October's elections and a major headache for his successor.

Monday's announcement that Temer was abandoning an overhaul of the social security system - billed as the centrepiece of his efforts at fiscal reform - sparked immediate concern from credit rating agencies that Latin America's largest economy was failing to put its financial house in order.