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. The maintenance of large current account deficits via capital account surpluses became problematic as investors became more risk averse to emerging market exposure as a consequence of the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and the Russian bond default in August 1998. After crafting a fiscal adjustment program and pledging progress on structural reform, Brazil received a $41.5 billion IMF-led international support program in November 1998. In January 1999, the Brazilian Central Bank announced that the real would no longer be pegged to the US dollar. This devaluation helped moderate the downturn in economic growth in 1999 that investors had expressed concerns about over the summer of 1998, and the country posted moderate GDP growth. Economic growth slowed considerably in 2001-02 - to less than 2% - because of a slowdown in major markets and the hiking of interest rates by the Central Bank to combat inflationary pressures. New president DA SILVA, who took office 1 January 2003, has given priority to reforming the complex tax code, trimming the overblown civil service pension system, and continuing the fight against inflation.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $1.34 trillion (2002 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
1% (2002 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $7,600 (2002 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 8%
industry: 36%
services: 56% (2001 est.)
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 (consumer prices):
8.3% (2002)
Labor force:
79 million (1999 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
services 53%, agriculture 23%, industry 24%
Unemployment rate:
6.4% (2001 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $100.6 billion
expenditures: $91.6 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2000)
Industries:
textiles, shoes, chemicals, cement, lumber, iron ore, tin, steel, aircraft, motor vehicles and parts, other machinery and equipment
Industrial production growth rate:
2.3% (2002 est.)
Electricity - production:
321.2 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 8.3%
hydro: 82.7%
other: 4.6% (2001)
nuclear: 4.4%
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 (January 2002 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves:
221.7 billion cu m (January 2002 est.)
Agriculture - products:
coffee, soybeans, wheat, rice, corn, sugarcane, cocoa, citrus; beef
Exports:
$59.4 billion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Exports - commodities:
transport equipment, iron ore, soybeans, footwear, coffee, autos
Exports - partners:
US 24.2%, Argentina 11.6%, Germany 5.4%, Netherlands 4.4%, Japan, Italy (2001)
Imports:
$46.2 billion f.o.b. (2002)
Imports - commodities:
machinery, electrical, and transport equipment, chemical products, oil
Imports - partners:
US 27.4%, Argentina 13.5%, Germany 8.9%, Japan 5.0%, Italy (2001)
Debt - external:
$222.4 billion (2002)
Economic aid - recipient:
$30 billion IMF disbursement (August 2002)
Currency:
real (BRL)
Currency code:
BRL
Exchange rates:
reals per US dollar - 2.9212 (2002), 2.3577 (2001), 1.8301 (2000), 1.8147 (1999), 1.1605 (1998)
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
Fiscal year:
calendar year
NOTE: The information regarding Brazil on this page is re-published from the 2003 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Guinea Geography 2003 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Brazil Economy 2003 should be addressed to the CIA.
