World Country Guide

Business Profile

Economy
Brazil has the world’s 10th-largest economy. Agriculture remains the largest sector in terms of employment and Brazil is the world’s second-largest exporter of agricultural products, principally coffee, sugar, soya beans, orange juice, beef, poultry and cocoa. Sisal, tobacco, maize and cotton are also produced. Orange juice and coffee are key export earners. There is also a substantial industrial sector, concentrated in machinery, electrical goods, construction materials, rubber and chemicals, and vehicle production. The country also possesses large mineral reserves including iron ore – of which Brazil is the world’s largest exporter – bauxite, gold, titanium, manganese, copper and tin. Plans to develop Brazil’s potentially vast oil and gas resources will serve to reduce the country’s large current energy import bill but face opposition both at home and abroad on environmental grounds.
After difficulties throughout the 1980s, as the economy adjusted to new liberal economic policies, Brazil recorded a fairly strong economic performance during most of the 1990s. Industrial efficiency and financial management were improved while the government bolstered its coffers through a programme of privatisation. However, little of this money was directed towards investment and Brazil has suffered the consequences of years of under-investment in infrastructure and public services. In 1994, the government introduced a new currency, the Real, to replace the Cruzeiro. Despite several bouts of serious speculative attack – the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the 1999 Mexico financial crisis and in the run-up to the 2002 election – the Real has survived with the support of several bail-outs from the IMF and World Bank, which have, as ever, demanded austerity measures in return. The Lula government, which took office with a series of radical social programmes at the beginning of 2003, was soon forced to make budget cuts. Its main target has been the country’s costly pension system, which is now being overhauled.
The economy has recorded slow growth – below 2 per cent – during the last two years. Inflation remains stubbornly high but not unmanageable, at 15 per cent. Brazil’s principal trading partners are the USA, Japan and Germany, as well as its fellow members of the newly formed southern Latin American trading bloc, MERCOSUR. Brazil also has important trading links with a number of Arab countries, notably Saudi Arabia.

Business
Business suits are worn when meeting senior officials and local heads of business, for semi-formal social functions and in exclusive restaurants and clubs. Exchange of business cards is usual. Office hours: Mon-Fri 0900-1800.

Commercial Information
The following organisations can offer advice: International Chamber of Commerce, Rua Timbiras 1200, 3 andar, 30140-060 Belo Horizonte (tel/fax: (31) 3273 7021; e-mail: camint@camint.com.br; website: www.camint.com.br); or Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce (BACC), 509 Madison Avenue, Suite 304, New York, NY 10022, USA (tel: (212) 751 4691; fax: (212) 751 7692 or 751 8929; e-mail: info@brazilcham.com; website: www.brazilcham.com); or American Chamber of Commerce for Brazil, Rua da Paz, 1431 CEP 04713-001 So Paulo (tel: (11) 5180 3804; fax: (11) 5180 3777; e-mail: amhost@amcham.com.br; website: www.amcham.com.br); or trade and commercial sections of Brazilian Embassies (some of which also incorporate a Brazilian Chamber of Commerce; for contact numbers, see Contact Addresses section).