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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: elmatador who wrote (29272)	2/9/2008 9:46:03 AM
From: Elroy Jetson	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 218834

With the election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2002, Brazil has turned its attention to its deep social problems. In Brazil, 25 per cent of state and municipal taxes and 18 per cent of federal taxes are earmarked for education. Yet no one is describing Brazil as a paradise. It remains a major multi-ethnic country with major problems of crime, civil violence, scattered sub-standard living, intractable economic inequality, deplorable police brutality, and endemic political corruption. Brazilians do not even consider their constitution sacrosanct. The constitution has already been amended more than 53 times. Over the past 12 months, Brazil's real has appreciated 20 percent against the U.S. dollar. "While imports haven't lost their thrust, exports continue to suffer because of the real's appreciation," Alex Agostini, chief economist at Austin Rating Servicos Financeiros, a Sao Paulo-based company that rates corporations and banks, said. Brazil's monthly imports exceeded $10 billion for the first time ever in July and have since remained above this threshold. Exports from Latin America's biggest economy could fall further if a recession in the U.S. quells world demand, Agostini said. Imports, though, would still be fueled by the country's domestic economic growth, the economist said, resulting in a worsening trade balance. While Brazil’s fiscal revenues had been growing rapidly alongside strong economic growth, a fiscal shortfall is a possibility in 2008. As result, the government is now being forced to revise and make adjustments to the 2008 budget. The reality of such fiscal challenges may push the government to address long-standing fiscal problems. In spite of these many problems Brazil’s Finance Minister Guido Mantega reiterated “There’s nothing telling us we should abandon our optimism.” .