|
Latinamerica is the developing region which will expand less in 2006 - below Asia and Africa - with 3.9%, said United Nations Undersecretary-General José Antonio Ocampo on presenting the latest edition of the UN World Economic Situation and Prospects.
According to the report, global growth will reach 3.3% in 2006 with developing economies the most dynamic, particularly China that is forecasted to have a GDP 8.3% expansion and India, 6.8%. This means developing economies will grow an average 5.6% this year while developed countries 2.5%. Latinamerica with 3.9% will remain relatively behind compared to Africa's 5.5%, Southeast Asia 6.5% and western Asia 5.1%. In Latinamerica Argentina will lead with a 6% expansion, followed by Chile and Venezuela with 5.5%; Peru 5% and Colombia and Uruguay 4.5%. However the two largest economies of the region, Mexico and Brazil will grow a modest 3.5 and 3%. Precisely, according to Mr. Ocampo, it's the two leading economies that are keeping the region "lagging". In Brazil the main problem is the restrictive monetary policy which was effective until mid 2005. Changes since are beginning to take effect but the impact on slower growth already exists. In Mexico's case the country has still to adapt to the strong manufacturing competition from China, added Mr. Ocampo who admits a positive solution is possible in the near future, "but not immediately". Furthermore Latinamerica continues strongly dependent on the international commodities market, and "has been unable to incorporate technology intensive manufacturing, which is the key to success in Asia". "Commodities are positive if current high prices remain strong but history shows us that they are the least dynamic elements of world trade", underlined Mr. Ocampo. Latinamerica experienced a strong rebound in 2004 posting a 5.6% growth but has since slid into a gradual descent with 4.1% in 2005 and 3.9% forecasted for this year. In 2005 performance was uneven with strong growth in energy and mineral exporting countries such as Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. Ecuador in spite of being an oil exporter missed the trend because of domestic factors such as lack of investment in the industry. On the other end some countries in Central America and the Caribbean net importers of oil, suffered the full impact of high energy prices, even when Venezuela softened the situation by granting oil at preferential conditions. Unemployment in the region has improved with 9.3% in 2005, the lowest since 1997, with poverty also dropping from 41.7% in 2004 to 40% last year. The report, which is compiled annually by a host of U.N. agencies, saw growth in 2006 as similar to that of 2005, which has yet to be firmly established with U.S. fourth-quarter data due on Friday, January 27. Growth is forecasted to continue to cool from the historically high pace of 4% in 2004 using the market exchange rate method. Some banks see world economic growth in the range of 3.5 to 4% in 2006. The U.N. report anticipates U.S. growth at 3.1% in 2006 in market exchange rate terms, with European expansion at 2.1% and Japan's at 2%. Mercopress - www.mercopress.com
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
....year after year the developing nations growth rate. In fact they lagged every year since Lula is President.
But listen to Lula how proud he is of his achievements.
Being at the queue of his peers is full of great and positive achievements....for Lula !
IT IS NOT ! SIMPLE.
A NUMBER IS A NUMBER, A FACT IS A FACT AS LONG IT DOESNT COME FROM BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT WHO JUST MANIPULATE NUMBERS AND SHOW ROSY FIGURES THAT ARE NOT SO ROSY, WHEN ANALYZED HONESTLY AND CORRECTLY..