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Non-Tech : The Brazil Board -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: THE ANT who wrote (1158)	9/26/2012 7:51:59 AM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2508

In Brazil: The Poor Get Richer Faster ELMAT:How savage the Brazilian capitalism was? PNAD says: Brazil, even after all this progress is among the 12 most unequal countries in the world. (Brazil used to be the sixth worse distribution of income in the world) It’s a tale of two Americas. One, in the North, has the rich getting richer faster. That’s the U.S. of course. In South America, Brazil is seeing the opposite happen. The poor are getting richer faster. And it’s not all because of dreaded “government handout”. Brazilian workers making up the lowest 10 percent of the labor force in terms of income had higher salary increases than the remaining 90 percent of the labor force, including Brazil’s wealthy, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) said in their National Household Sample Survey released last week. Wages for Brazil’s poorest workers grew an impressive 29.2 percent between 2009 and 2011, and during the same period, the average income of the general labor force grew 8.3 percent. By comparison, our average income is rising by, what? A penny? Something like that. “Brazil is showing the world that it is possible to grow and include at the same time, and that the inclusion of the poorest contributes to the growth of the country,” said Social Development Minister Tereza Campello in a statement. Including all income sources, the average monthly income of workers in Brazil showed a real gain of 4.6 percent, having reached R$ 1,279 (US$ 631). Thus, the measure of inequality (Gini coefficient) fell from 0.518 in 2009 to 0.501 in 2011 in Brazil. This increase in income distribution brought the index down in all forms of calculation. The closer the index is to zero, the more equal is the distribution of income. While the poor are getting richer in Brazil while the poor get poorer in the U.S., there is still no comparing poverty and even middle class incomes in the two countries. Social services and state safety nets in the U.S. are more elaborate and sophisticated than they are in Brazil. And despite growing inequality in the U.S. over the last several years, Brazil has a ways to go before there is more uniformity in the social classes. However, if the U.S. keeps at it — with low wages, an education system that focuses too heavily on liberal arts, and punitive higher education costs — we should be on par with Brazil in a couple of generations

To: THE ANT who wrote (1158)	10/27/2012 7:08:16 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 2508

economy likely grew above 5% in Q3- government sources. not completely out of the woods. A fragile global economy, plus severe infrastructure bottlenecks, sluggish investment and continued uneven performance by manufacturers at home are the main obstacles ahead. In 2012 the economy is likely to expand only 1.5 percent even with the improvement in the final months, but officials expect growth of about 4 percent in annualized terms in the fourth quarter and 4 percent growth throughout 2013. Independent economists also see a solid rebound ahead in Latin America's biggest economy, according to a Reuters poll of 36 banks earlier this month. The median forecast for growth in 2013 was 4 percent and French bank BNP Paribas was even more optimistic, forecasting a 5.5 percent expansion. Investors and officials had become anxious after a year of aggressive fiscal and monetary stimuli failed to revive an economy that nearly stagnated after growing a staggering 7.5 percent only two years ago. Brazil's economic recovery finally arrives Fri Oct 26, 2012 11:28am EDT * Economy likely grew above 5 pct in Q3- government sources * Year of stimulus finally shoring up economy * Slow global growth main threat to full recovery * Rousseff to continue push to bolster consumption By Alonso Soto BRASILIA, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Just when it seemed the Brazilian economy was impervious to a year of non-stop stimulus policies, the recovery finally looks to be underway -- this time, for real. Optimistic Brazilian policymakers have been forced to repeatedly slash their growth expectations over the last year and a half after spikes in economic activity turned out to be short-lived. Now, members of President Dilma Rousseff's economic team tell Reuters they are confident the economy grew more than 5 percent in annualized terms in the third quarter, after a barrage of tax and interest rate cuts sparked a surge in sales of everything from cars to freezers. In the second quarter, the economy had expanded at an annualized pace of only 1.6 percent. "The recovery is here, there is no doubt about that," said one official, who asked for anonymity. Still, Brazil is not completely out of the woods. A fragile global economy, plus severe infrastructure bottlenecks, sluggish investment and continued uneven performance by manufacturers at home are the main obstacles ahead. In 2012 the economy is likely to expand only 1.5 percent even with the improvement in the final months, but officials expect growth of about 4 percent in annualized terms in the fourth quarter and 4 percent growth throughout 2013. Independent economists also see a solid rebound ahead in Latin America's biggest economy, according to a Reuters poll of 36 banks earlier this month. The median forecast for growth in 2013 was 4 percent and French bank BNP Paribas was even more optimistic, forecasting a 5.5 percent expansion. Investors and officials had become anxious after a year of aggressive fiscal and monetary stimuli failed to revive an economy that nearly stagnated after growing a staggering 7.5 percent only two years ago. Driving the recovery were auto sales that surged by 15.3 percent in August to hit record highs while retail sales remained surprisingly robust for the third straight month. Foreign investment in factories is rebounding and for the first time in over a year the manufacturing industry added most of the new jobs to the economy in September, in signs that the worst may be over for an industrial sector that has been the main drag on the economy. A pick-up in consumption helped Brazil's biggest retailer, Grupo Pão de Açúcar , post stronger gross sales and higher net revenue in the third quarter. Brazilian planemaker Embraer has said government tax incentives helped improve its profitability in that quarter. Meanwhile, Rousseff and her aides are working hard to keep confidence levels high -- and thus shield the recovery. The trained economist herself announced to a crowd of auto executives on Wednesday what is expected to be the last extension of the temporary tax cut for carmakers. The tax break reduces the price for consumers by about 7 percent -- an incentive credited with the recent recovery in the industry. Finance Minister Guido Mantega did his share this week by saying the government will keep the local currency stable at any cost, which would help ease costs for a local industry struggling with a flood of imports. The government is planning to announce as soon as next week a new round of concession bids for public airports and ports. Officials are also working on ways to simplify and lower a series of federal and state taxes in coming months. "The message (to business leaders) is obvious. Invest more and invest more now," said another economic official. RISKS STILL AHEAD Some analysts worry the rebound is too reliant on short-term stimulus measures by the government, meaning the path to a full-fledged recovery remains on shaky ground. As the first official said: "The recovery is not going to be as spectacular as some originally thought." After an impressive surge in August, car sales faded a bit in September as the effect of the tax cuts started to ease. The once-booming construction sector is also struggling to recover even amid heavy government spending on public housing and building for the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament and the 2016 Olympics. The country's second largest homebuilder Cyrela cut its sales outlook twice this year on a weak economy and mounting costs. Low investment is also a chronic problem as a mix of high taxes, expensive labor force, red tape and dilapidated infrastructure make Brazil one of the most difficult and expensive countries in the world to conduct business. That cocktail, known here as "Brazil cost," is seen limiting economic growth to between 3 and 4 percent in the medium term - below the above 5 percent-plus pace often seen in the last decade. A blackout in Brazil's northeast late on Thursday, which left as many as 53 million people without power, was the latest reminder of the supply-side problems that may limit growth going forward. But government officials say the main worry remains the health of the global economy as rich nations like the United States and Europe face years of below-trend growth. "A slowing global economy could certainly hurt our recovery," said another official. "But we are confident our domestic market is strong enough to get us out of this mess."