V Winner Post #8 More on the Brazilian Economy

Note- as with all of our posts- we rely on Brazilian research, some of which is slightly dated. The purpose of this site is to provide general overview.

The Brazilian economy

Is the tenth largest in the world and its processing industry, the seventh. The income of Brazilians is $ 3.200,00 a year. Until 1994 the Brazil had high rates of inflation, when the Real Plan implemented the 10th exchange of currency during the period Republican, transforming the currency of Brazil Real, divided into 100 cents, a stable currency.
The drastic reduction of the inflationary indexes contributed to a small improvement in distribution of income. The Central Bank of Brazil, set up in 1965, with headquarters in Brasilia, gave the currency of the country, but from the Real, this function is performed by the Monetary Council Nacional (CMN), composed by the Ministers of Finance and Planning and the President of the Central Bank. Other large banks are The Bank of Brazil and the BNDES (National Bank of Economic and Social Development), in addition to numerous other state and private banks. The main sources of income are the EU Tax on Income, Taxes on Industrial Production (IPI) and Contribution to Social Security (Cofins). The Federal Government still collects taxes on imports, exports and financial operations, from the PIS / Pasep and the Net profit. The number of enterprises by 1993 in Brazil is estimated at 3.5 million, according to the Sebrae and 0.4% for large, 1% of mid size, 8% of small 90.6% and micro-enterprises, with 52.5% in the sector of trade, 32.5% in services and 15% in industry.
By 1995, 916 companies had the certificate ISO 9000. Micro enterprises are the most numerous in the services sector, accounting for 94%. The sector that is the fastest growing is agricultural. To cope with globalization, Brazil becomes, based on freedom of Market and privatization. The main buyers of Brazilian products are the United States, Germany, Japan, Italy, Argentina, France, the Netherlands and Britain.
The largest exports were: soybeans, coffee, iron ore, steel, transport equipment, meat, machinery, shoes and fabrics. The United States remain the main source of imported products by Brazil followed by Venezuela, Germany, Japan, Argentina, France and Canada.
Major imports included crude oil and refined, machinery, metals, chemicals and wheat. There in Brazil 3.4 million rural properties, which correspond to 325 million of Ha, of which only 0.9% of landowners hold 35% of the properties. Among them, 35,083 are considered unproductive land, with an area exceeding 1,000 ha, a total of 153 million of ha. This means that 47% of the land rural Brazil is part of unproductive land. Brazil is part of MERCOSUR, treaty signed by Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, in 1991, in the city of Asuncion, capital of Paraguay, aiming at the establishment a common market between these four countries, which is already giving fruit. The rationalization agricultural activities, aimed at greater productivity and higher profits, modified a panorama existing previously.
Currently it is the development of agribusiness and the emergence of medium and small owners who use modern technology. Approximately one quarter of the world's coffee is grown in the plantations of Sao Paulo, Parana, Espirito Santo and Minas Gerais.
Brazil is among the main World producers of sugar cane. The main agricultural products are sugar cane, orange, corn, soybean, cassava, rice, coffee, tobacco, potatoes, cotton, wheat and bananas. The Brazilian livestock, traditionally, is the type extensive. With the adoption of modern criteria and incorporating itself breeds imported, the herd has been diversified. Currently the trend is that the livestock becomes intensive. The herd is a homogeneous distribution of the land, especially in Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, Goias, Mato Grosso do Sul and in the South, where There are a lot of dairy cattle, pigs (36 million), poultry, sheep (20 million), goats (12 million), horses (6.5 million), donkeys (1.9 million), buffalo (1.2 million) and mules (1.3 million). Brazil has one of the largest herds cattle in the world (161 million head). The production of milk is the mount of 15,784,011,000 liter and the slaughter of 1,263,108,084 head per year. The production of eggs, chicken is 2,199,083 thousands of dozens, of quail,30,035 and thousands of dozens of honey bee, 18,841,386 kg per year.

Industrialization Brazil started after the construction of the first roads of iron in the century XIX. The first installed was the textile industry, which remained for more than 80 years as the main activity in the country. After 1960 settled in the manufacturing modern and diversified and the processing industry currently occupies the seventh position in the world. The main industry are: textiles, steel, consumer electronics, tobacco, automobiles, ships, planes, food and chemical. Sao Paulo is the main rule industrial, with factories that produce about one third of the total volume of the industries in Brazil, the cities of Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Belo Horizonte (MG),Porto Alegre (RS) and Fortaleza (CE) are also large industrials .A industry of Wood much timber has developed in the decades of 1970 and 1980 and the forests were cleared quickly, arriving to be threatened with extinction, such as Araucarias of Paraná. At Amazon continues to unbridled exploitation by from illegal logging which exclude the mahogany, particularly on Indian land, without any effective supervision. In Xapuri, in the Acre, rubber were organized and are upgrading the techniques of extraction of it, without recourse to the devastation of forests. In recent years, techniques favored to freeze the operation of Amazonian fruit as allow its exportation. Its exports, in addition to winning space on the domestic market. The mineral resources of Brazil are great. Brazil is one of the largest producers world's gold, iron, tin, of crystals of quartz, monazite and beryllium. From the Continental Platform are extracted 60% of the oil production, having the biggest part coming from the Basin of Campos (RJ).

- A. Jonathan Buhalis