Major Nations in a Global World: Brazil

Brazil’s President Dilma Rous- seff has said the main goal of the country’s economic development was to improve living conditions. In the past, economic develop- ment and proper living conditions didn’t always walk hand-in-hand. For most of its history, the Bra-

A field of sugarcane, still an important crop in Brazil.

zilian economy centered on one commodity or another, such as brazilwood, sugarcane, gold, diamonds, and coffee. As industrialization took hold in the middle to late 1900s, Brazil’s economy grew as more and more factories were built. Within a few years, the country’s automobile, steel, and petrochemical industry boomed, although there were slowdowns from time to time. In the 1990s, economic reforms such as the abolishment of state monop- olies and the elimination of trade barriers allowed the economy to begin humming after several years of stagnation. In 2001, the government launched a $6 billion antipoverty program that included health and education programs for the poor. However, the economy worsened, and the International Monetary Fund had to loan Brazil money to keep its economy going. Brazil eventually became one of the world’s emerging economies, fueled by the commodities it exported and government spending that lifted millions of poor into the middle class. In a few short years, Brazil became the leading indus- trial nation in Latin America and the second largest in the Western Hemisphere. Today, Brazil is a place where many foreign companies have built factories to make a variety of products, including TV sets, chemicals, automobiles, and steel. Brazil is also a partner with several other South American countries, includ- ing Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, in a common economic market in which all tariff, or tax, barriers are eliminated, making it easier for these nations to trade with one another. Brazil’s economy has been so robust that in 2012, the country had the fifth largest number of millionaires, well ahead of the United Kingdom and Japan. Brazil was also one of the first nations to emerge from the economic crisis that gripped the world beginning in late 2007. Brazil relies heavily on its farmers and ranchers: it is among the world’s leading producers of soybeans, coffee, cacao, corn, sugar, cassava, oranges,

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MAJOR NATIONS IN A GLOBAL WORLD: BRAZIL