Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla said her administration may not succeed in winning legislative approval of a tax system overhaul aimed at paring a deficit that has grown to more than 5 percent of gross domestic product.

If the latest push on tax increases fails, “there would not be enough time in my administration to do it and we would leave it to the next government,” Chinchilla said in an interview in her office in San Jose. “What we want to avoid is that what’s now only a fiscal crisis contaminates the rest of our economy.”