Getting it together at last

The Economist, 11/12/09
…Foreigners have short memories, but Brazilians have learned to temper their optimism with caution—even now, when the country is enjoying probably its best moment since a group of Portuguese sailors (looking for India) washed up on its shores in 1500. Brazil has been democratic before, it has had economic growth before and it [...]

Condemned to prosperity

The Economist, 11/12/09
Brazil has learned to love its commodity sector
…The large discoveries of offshore oil made by Petrobras in 2007, which have generated so much excitement recently, have made it easy to forget that Brazil is already the world’s largest exporter of coffee, sugar, chickens, beef and orange juice. It also exports vast amounts of [...]

Brazil takes off

The Economist, 11/13/09
Now that scepticism looks misplaced. China may be leading the world economy out of recession but Brazil is also on a roll. It did not avoid the downturn, but was among the last in and the first out. Its economy is growing again at an annualised rate of 5%. It should pick up [...]

Brazil triggers talk of action to curb real

Jonathan Wheatley-Financial Times, 11/11/09
Brazil’s finance minister, Guido Mantega, has sparked speculation that his government will introduce further capital controls after declaring that foreign exchange markets have given the real an “exaggerated” valuation.
Brazil last month introduced a 2 per cent tax on foreign portfolio investments to stem the appreciation of the real – which has risen [...]

Brazil’s Real Rises to Two-Week High on G-20 Stimulus Pledge

Camila Fontana-Bloomberg, 11/09/09
Brazil’s real rose to the highest level in two weeks against the dollar after stocks advanced and the Group of 20 nations remained silent on the U.S. currency’s decline this year and agreed to maintain stimulus measures.
The real gained 0.8 percent to 1.7058 per dollar at 8:53 a.m. in New York, the strongest [...]

World unemployment up despite economic recovery

Greg Keller-The Associated Press, 11/05/09
Despite signs of an economic revival gathering pace around the globe, the millions of people laid off during the worst recession in 70 years are unlikely to see relief any time soon as joblessness is still climbing in many of the world’s largest economies.
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BRAZIL — The government says the unemployment rate [...]

FACTBOX-The IMF common reserve proposal and BRIC savings

Reuters, 11/05/09
International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has proposed creating a common pool of reserves to help rebalance the world economy by dissuading emerging market countries from accumulating massive foreign exchange reserves. Such ideas are likely to come into play as Group of 20 nations develop a plan [...]

The north-east: Still trying to catch up

David White-The Financial Times, 11/04/09
Perceptions about Brazil’s north-east are changing. A region long identified with hardship, drought, legendary bandits and social injustice is no longer seen just as a case for treatment, but as a largely untapped source of growth.
During the past few years the north-east – up to now the largest concentration of poverty [...]

Education: Expanding economy discovers it lacks the skills it requires

Andrew Downie-Financial Times, 11/04/09
Like many Brazilian companies, Randon has spent much of the past decade worrying about where to find engineers and technicians to keep it expanding and competitive.
Qualified workers are in short supply in Brazil and Randon, a R$3bn (US$1.7bn) engineering conglomerate that produces everything from brake pads to truck suspensions, decided to attack [...]

FT and Valor Host Conference on “Investing in Brazil”

The Financial Times and Valor hosted a conference, “Investing in Brazil,” about Brazil’s post-recession investment scene. The conference featured President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,  Dilma Rousseff, President Lula’s chief of staff, and Henrique Meirelles, the director of Brazil’s central bank.
President Lula predicted that Brazil will be the fifth largest economy by 2020. Dilma Rouseff [...]