4. OVERVIEW
! Location - Eastern South America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean
! Area – 8,511,965 sq km
boundaries!quot;!total: 14,691 km
! Land
border countries: Argentina 1,224 km, Bolivia 3,400 km, Colombia 1,643
km, French Guiana 673 km, Guyana 1,119 km, Paraguay 1,290 km, Peru
1,560 km, Suriname 597 km, Uruguay 985 km, Venezuela 2,200 km
! Natural resources - bauxite, gold, iron ore, manganese, nickel,!
phosphates, platinum, tin, uranium, petroleum, hydropower, timberquot;
! Land use - arable land: 6.96%
permanent crops: 0.9%
other: 92.15% (2001)
5. OVERVIEW(cntd)
!Irrigated land - 26,560 sq km (1998 est.)
!Natural hazards - recurring droughts in northeast;
floods and occasional frost in south quot;
!Population - 186,112,794 (July,2005 est.)
structure!-
!Age
0-14 years: 26.1% (male 24,789,495/female 23,842,715)
15-64 years: 67.9% (male 62,669,392/female 63,719,631)
65 years and over: 6% (male 4,549,552/female 6,542,009) (2005 est.)
6. OVERVIEW(cntd)
growth rate - 1.06% (2005 est.)
!Population
!Ethnic groups - white 53.7%, mulatto (mixed white
and black) 38.5%, black 6.2%, other (includes Japanese,
Arab, Amerindian) 0.9%, unspecified 0.7% (2000 census).
!Religions #Roman Catholic (nominal) 73.6%,
Protestant 15.4%, Spriritualist 1.3%, Bantu/voodoo 0.3%,
other 1.8%, unspecified 0.2%, none 7.4% (2000 census).
– Portuguese (official), Spanish, English,
!Languages
French.
– 86.4% total population
!Literacy
7. History of Brazil
! Following three centuries under the rule of Portugal,
Brazil became an independent nation in 1822. By far
the largest and most populous country in South
America, Brazil overcame more than half a century
of military intervention in the governance of the
country when in 1985 the military regime peacefully
ceded power to civilian rulers. Brazil continues to
pursue industrial and agricultural growth and
development of its interior. Exploiting vast natural
resources and a large labor pool, it is today South
America's leading economic power and a regional
leader. Highly unequal income distribution remains a
pressing problem.
9. Government and Political Figures
! Conventional Name: Federative Republic of Brazil
! Government type: federative republic
! Capital: Brasilia
! Constitution: 5 October 1988
! Legal system: based on Roman codes; has not accepted
compulsory ICJ jurisdiction.
10. Government and Political Figures(Cntd)
! President# Luiz Inacio LULA DA SILVA (since 1 January 2003),
! Vice President# Jose ALENCAR (since 1 January 2003),
note - the president is both the chief of state and head of government.
cabinet: appointed by the presidentquot;
! elections: president and vice president elected on the
same ticket by popular vote for four-year terms; election
last held 6 October 2002 (next to be held 1 October
2006, with a runoff on 29 October 2006 if necessary);
runoff election held 27 October 2002
11. Government and Political Figures(Cntd)
! Legislative branch - bicameral National Congress or
Congresso Nacional consists of the Federal Senate or
Senado Federal (81 seats; three members from each state and
federal district elected according to the principle of majority to
serve eight-year terms; one-third elected after a four-year period,
two-thirds elected after the next four-year period) and the
Chamber of Deputies or Camara dos Deputados (513
seats; members are elected by proportional representation to serve
four-year terms)
! Judicial branch: Supreme Federal Tribunal (11 ministers are
appointed for life by the president and confirmed by the Senate); Higher
Tribunal of Justice; Regional Federal Tribunals (judges are appointed for life);
note - though appointed quot;for life,quot; judges, like all federal employees, have a
mandatory retirement age of 70
12. The Election Result
(25th May, 2003)
Next to be held in 2007
Chamber of Deputies
Federal Senate
(seats by party )
(seats by party )
71, 14%
21, 4%
22, 4%
4% 4% 91, 19%
5% 1%1%
26, 5%
1%
6%
26, 5%
14%
24%
15, 3%
49, 10%
84, 16%
17%
11, 2%
23%
12, 2%
6, 1%
74, 14%
5, 1%
PMBD PFL PT PSDB PDT PSB
PMBD PFL PT PSDB PDT
PL PTB PPS PSD PP
PSB PL PTB PPS PP
other PCdoB PRONA PV
note - many congressmen have changed party affiliation since the most recent election
13. Political Analysis
Brazil, Latin America's largest economy, is set to hold
!
presidential and legislative elections in October 2006. Until
June, most analysts expected Luiz Inacio quot;Lulaquot; da Silva to
easily win re-election. Lula has been president since 2003
and has won widespread praise for his market-friendly
policies despite his leftist past.
! However, the corruption scandal that hit the ruling Workers
Party (PT) weakened Lula and his government and it's
unclear whether or not he plans to run again and if so
whether he will win. The scandal has even generating calls
for Lula to be impeached.
! Nevertheless, Lula remains surprisingly popular despite the
scandal.
14. Political Analysis
A Datafolha/Folha de Sao Paulo poll in October found that Lula
!
would win more votes than his leading contender, Sao Paulo mayor
and former health minister Jose Serra. The poll showed that Lula
would get 30 percent of the vote, while Serra would get 27 percent,
while other candidates got 10 percent or less. However, if there
were a runoff with only Lula and Serra, Lula would get 41 percent,
less than Serra at 45 percent, the same poll shows.
If Lula decides to not run for re-election, a likely candidate from his
!
own party would be finance minister Antonio Palocci, who is also
popular among local and foreign investors.
Either way, a pro-business candidate should win the election,
!
whether it be Lula, Serra or Palocci. Combined with the impressive
economic growth and fiscal stability in Brazil so far, investors are
likely to maintain or boost their stake in Brazil even leading up to
the elections - unlike the situation last time, when the fear of a Lula
victory nearly paralized local and foreign investments in Brazi.
16. Economic 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 2.2% 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. In 2004, Brazil
enjoyed more robust growth that yielded increases in
employment and real wages. The three pillars of the economic
program are a floating exchange rate, an inflation-targeting
regime, and tight fiscal policy, all reinforced by a series of IMF
programs.
The currency depreciated sharply in 2001 and 2002, which
!
contributed to a dramatic current account adjustment
17. Economic overview(ctnd)
In 2003 and 2004, Brazil ran record trade surpluses and
!
recorded its first current account surpluses since 1992.
Productivity gains - particularly in agriculture - also
contributed to the surge in exports, and Brazil in 2004
surpassed the previous year's record export level and again
posted a current account surplus. 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 - before falling as
a percentage of GDP in 2004, while Brazil's foreign debt (a mix
of private and public debt) is large in relation to Brazil's small
(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.
18. Macroeconomic adjustment in 2005
budget surplus reached a record
! Primary
4,84% in 2005, above the country’s and the
IMF’s targets, equivalent to US$39 billion.
However, taking into account US$64 billion
of interest payments, the overall budget is in
deficit to 3,29% of GDP, compared with
2,67% in 2004.
19. Macro-economy analysis
Currency unit – Brazilian Real (US$ 1=BRL 2.331)
!
SDR exchange rate for Brazilian Real (16 Jan, 2006 ):
!
SDR/Unit = 0.30 Unit/SDR = 3.296230
Major Trading Partners:
!
Imports: US 18.3%, Argentina 8.9%, Germany 8.1%, China 5.9%,
Nigeria 5.6%, Japan 4.6% (2004)
Exports: US 20.8%, Argentina 7.5%, Netherlands 6.1%, China 5.6%,
Germany 4.1%, Mexico 4% (2004)
GDP - Purchasing Power Parity $1.492 trillion (2004 est.)
!
20. GDP - composition by sector
100
90
80
70
60
50 %GDP
40
30
20
10
0 Agriculture Industry Services
33. COUNTRY RATING
Rating : B
rating watchlisted with positive implications
since December 2004
« An unsteady political and economic
environment is likely to affect further an
already poor payment record ».
Source: Coface
35. Country Credit Rating
Rank Six month One-year
Country Rate
March Sept 2005 change change
2005
137 115 Argentina 26.4 6.3 4.2
83 85 Uruguay 37.8 0.4 4.3
67 66 Brazil 48.2 1.5 5.6
32 30 Chile 71.6 1.6 4.1
Source: Institutional Investor
36. Corruption Perceptions Index 2005
Country Rank 2005 CPI score
Argentina 97 2.8
Brazil 62 3.7
&' $quot;%
Uruguay
Chile 21 7.3
Source: Transparency International
38. Risk assessment
After three catch-up years, an economic slowdown should develop in 2006 due
!
notably to sagging domestic consumption and insufficient investment.
The public sector financial situation has remained precarious despite the
!
generation of comfortable primary surpluses and the favourable treatment obtained
by Argentina following the restructuring of its bond debt in June 2005. Although
that operation also allowed Argentina to sharply reduce its foreign debt, it still has
very high debt ratios and substantial financing needs.
Although foreign exchange reserves nonetheless rose due to substantial trade
!
surpluses and capital repatriation, that trend should wane. Meanwhile, the banking
sector is still shaky despite modest improvement.
The run-up to presidential elections in 2007 will hardly be conducive to progress
!
on structural reforms, particularly concerning the business environment, financial
system, and price adjustments for privatised public services.
In that context, business-to-business credit has been gradually resuming and the
!
financial health of export-oriented companies has been better than that of
companies focusing on the domestic market. Subsidiaries of foreign companies
have been more cautious, however, due notably to uncertainties concerning the
legal and judicial framework.ms.
39. Overall Risk Assessment
Weaknesses
Strengths
- The public debt burden is very heavy
- Brazil boasts abundant natural
with maturities too short.
resources with a relatively diversified
- The external debt level is unsustainable
economy.
over the long haul.
- Fiscal and monetary policy has been
- External financing needs are too great in
prudent and pragmatic.
comparison to currency earnings due to
- Domestic market potential and low the debt amortisation burden.
labour costs have continued to attract - The low level of savings — which
foreign investors. government financing needs essentially
- The current level of real permits gobble up — has been impeding private
company investment.
Brazilian companies to be competitive.
- The new president has little room for
- The country enjoys international
maneuvers, squeezed by his electors'
financial community backing.
aspirations for change, the need to reach
compromises with coalition partners, and
by economic restraints.
40. Overall Risk Assessment
Social & Political stability
Economic growth prospects
Domestic financial stability
External competitiveness
42. Sources
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
!
Cofacerating
!
Country Watch
!
World Bank
!
The Institute of International Finance (IIF)
!
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
!
Latin Business Chronicle
!
UNDP
!
Rating & Investment Information
!
Standard & Poor’s
!
Transparency International
!
Kurtzman Group
!
Institutional Investors
!