Brazil

Brazil Economy

Economy - overview
Possessing large and well-developed agricultural, mining, manufacturing, and service sectors, Brazil's economy outweighs that of all other South American countries and is expanding its presence in world markets. From 2001-03 real wages fell and Brazil's economy grew, on average, only 1.1% per year, as the country absorbed a series of domestic and international economic shocks. That Brazil absorbed these shocks without financial collapse is a tribute to the resiliency of the Brazilian economy and the economic program put in place by former President CARDOSO and strengthened by President Lula DA SILVA. The three pillars of the economic program are a floating exchange rate, an inflation-targeting regime, and tight fiscal policy, which have been reinforced by a series of IMF programs. The currency depreciated sharply in 2001 and 2002, which contributed to a dramatic current account adjustment: in 2003, Brazil ran a record trade surplus and recorded the first current account surplus since 1992. While economic management has been good, there remain important economic vulnerabilities. The most significant are debt-related: the government's largely domestic debt increased steadily from 1994 to 2003, straining government finances, while Brazil's foreign debt (a mix of private and public debt) is large in relation to Brazil's modest (but growing) export base. Another challenge is maintaining economic growth over a period of time to generate employment and make the government debt burden more manageable.

GDP
purchasing power parity - $1.375 trillion (2003 est.)

GDP - real growth rate
-0.2% (2003 est.)

GDP - per capita
purchasing power parity - $7,600 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector
agriculture: 10.2%
industry: 38.7%
services: 51.2% (2003 est.)

Investment
18% of GDP (2003)

Population below poverty line
22% (1998 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share
lowest 10%: 0.7%
highest 10%: 48% (1998)

Distribution of family income - Gini index
60.7 (1998)

Inflation rate
14.7% (2003)

Labor force
82.59 million (2003 est.)

Labor force - by occupation
agriculture 23%, industry 24%, services 53%

Unemployment rate
12.3% (2003 est.)

Budget
revenues: $147.2 billion
expenditures: $172.4 billion, including capital expenditures of NA (2003)

Public debt
58.5% of GDP (2003)

Agriculture - products
coffee, soybeans, wheat, rice, corn, sugarcane, cocoa, citrus; beef

Industries
textiles, shoes, chemicals, cement, lumber, iron ore, tin, steel, aircraft, motor vehicles and parts, other machinery and equipment

Industrial production growth rate
0.4% (2003 est.)

Electricity - production
321.2 billion kWh (2001)

Electricity - consumption
335.9 billion kWh (2001)

Electricity - exports
0 kWh (2001)

Electricity - imports
37.19 billion kWh; note - supplied by Paraguay (2001)

Oil - production
1.561 million bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - consumption
2.199 million bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - exports
NA (2001)

Oil - imports
NA (2001)

Oil - proved reserves
8.507 billion bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production
5.95 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - consumption
9.59 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - exports
0 cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports
3.64 billion cu m (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves
221.7 billion cu m (1 January 2002)

Current account balance
$3.52 billion (2003)

Exports
$73.28 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)

Exports - commodities
transport equipment, iron ore, soybeans, footwear, coffee, autos

Exports - partners
US 23%, Argentina 6.1%, China 6%, Netherlands 5.8%, Germany 4.2% (2003)

Imports
$48.25 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)

Imports - commodities
machinery, electrical and transport equipment, chemical products, oil

Imports - partners
US 20%, Argentina 9.8%, Germany 8.7%, Japan 5.2%, China 4.4% (2003)

Reserves of foreign exchange & gold
$49.3 billion (2003)

Debt - external
$214.9 billion (2003)

Currency
real (BRL)

Currency code
BRL

Exchange rates
reals per US dollar - 3.0771 (2003), 2.9208 (2002), 2.3577 (2001), 1.8301 (2000), 1.8147 (1999)
note: from October 1994 through 14 January 1999, the official rate was determined by a managed float; since 15 January 1999, the official rate floats independently with respect to the US dollar



- Info Provided by the CIA World Factbook -