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Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva forecasted Friday the economy would expand 4% by the end of 2006 in spite of poor quarterly results.
The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, IBGE, reported Thursday that Brazil's GDP grew 0.5% from the first quarter, slowing from a 1.3% expansion in the first three months of the year in part because of falling exports. Brazil's export sector slumped 5.1% in the second quarter from the first three months of the year, the first decline after 12 consecutive quarters of expansion. "I had the opportunity to see the IBGE information and it is within what we had forecasted, that is to say we have a growth target of 4%," Lula told reporters after participating in a meeting with executives of Italian automaker Fiat. According to President Lula, who is seeking a second four-year term in the October 1st elections, there are "many people scared" with the tepid GDP growth in the second quarter, but "they forget that two quarters are left for the economy to get back on course". "We're convinced that we'll reach the 4% goal that we have set as our aim. We're going to achieve the goal of getting Brazil into a lasting cycle of growth, which is what indeed is necessary," insisted the president. However financial analysts are not so confident and believe that given second quarter results it will be difficult, but not impossible, to meet the 4% government target. The Brazilian economy last year also experienced a modest growth, 2.3% but the Lula da Silva administration preferred to react unconcerned about recent economic data and expressed optimism looking into the future. "I feel very good about growth prospects for Brazil's economy; I feel good about the prospects for growth in industrial output; I feel good about growth in the auto industry," the president said. But the fact is that the strong Brazilian currency, real, caused the first decline in export volumes in almost three years, helping slow down Latin America's largest economy, according to official data last week. Exporters have complained that the strong real reduces their proceeds from external sales and the competitiveness of their products. But analysts say the currency effect on the trade surplus so far is being masked by high prices for some key products, which are increasing the value of exports. Nevertheless President Lula's optimism seems to have caught with the Brazilian electorate because with only a month left for ballot day, public opinion surveys show him with over 50% of vote intention and 25 points ahead of his runner up, Geraldo Alckmin from the Social Democrat party. Socialist candidate Senator Heloísa Helena has stabilized in 12%. The same Vox Populi survey a month ago showed Lula da Silva with 45% of vote intention and former São Paulo governor Alckmin with 24%. Mercopress
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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.
They were ALL the time far above the reality.
Thus either he lies openly or this guy is really stupid.
In view of his economic performances, saying he is stupid is more appropriate.......since your growth rate was AND is the worst of all developing countries on this planet.
In fact he is so stupid that he is proud of his achievements.
Funny, isnt it ?