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Brazil will have to resist pressures for fiscal easing to sustain high primary surpluses and to raise medium term growth through reform efforts including improving the quality of fiscal policy and the business climate, according to IMF's World Economic Outlook released this week.
IMF forecasts Brazil's expansion in 2006 and 2007 to be in the range of 3.5%, but corrected downwards growth estimate for 2005 from last September's 3.3% to 2.3%. In Brazil, says the report, activity slowed sharply last year. Domestic demand remained subdued due primarily to inventory adjustments and some softening in investment following the earlier tightening of monetary policy, although private consumption has remained robust, underpinned by rising employment and real incomes. There are recent signs of a pickup in activity, such as in retail sales and industrial production, and growth is expected to strengthen in 2006 as lower interest rates spur a recovery in investment. With inflationary pressures moderating and inflation expectations well grounded, IMF believes there's room to continue the gradual reduction of policy interest rates initiated in September 2005. Furthermore reflecting strong revenue efforts the consolidated primary surplus reached 4.8% of GDP in 2005 well above the 4.25% target. Finally IMF recommends that to continue the progress made in reducing public debt, Brazil will have to resist pressures for fiscal easing to sustain high primary surpluses and to raise medium term growth through reform efforts. The report also points out that in 2005 in contrast with the robust expansion of Latin America given the strong global demand for commodities, in particular fuels, metals and agriculture, Brazil' growth owing to weak domestic demand and investment, slowed. Although not specifically mentioning any country, IMF underlines that the region as a whole faces a busy electorate schedule this year "underscoring the importance of maintaining sound economic policies and defending hard earned credibility among domestic and foreign investors during political transitions." Next October Brazil is holding presidential and congressional elections. Mercopress - www.mercopress.com
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Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
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.
Strange, when one listen to Lula speeches and self compliments, he says the exact opposite.
Who is right ??????
What a joke full of lies....this Lula !