|
 Rio Grande do Sul state, in the south tip of Brazil, had a 60% growth in imports in the fist seven months of the year, in comparison with the same period in 2007. The value reached US$ 8.1 billion. The results were disclosed by the president at the Federation of Industries of the State of Rio Grande do Sul (Fiergs), Paulo Tigre.
According to Tigre, the heated industrial activity reflected in demand for inputs, especially from Argentina, and also in the purchase of machinery and equipment.
"The increase of income of families and the appreciated exchange also stimulated purchases of consumer goods," he said.
Exports from the state of Rio Grande do Sul grew 25%, reaching US$ 10.7 billion. The industrial sector was responsible for 83% of sales.
Most of the purchases in the industrial sector were for chemical products, especially urea and naphtha for the petrochemical industry, with growth of 98% over the result for 2007, reaching US$ 1.5 billion this year.
The hydrocarbon (crude oil) and machinery and equipment (tractors and agricultural machinery) sectors followed the tendency, growing 84%, accumulating US$ 2.9 billion and US$ 679 million respectively.
Foreign Market
Rio Grande do Sul state foreign sales from January to July grew 19% and reached US$ 8.5 billion. Food and drink, which answered to 26% of the export basket of Rio Grande do Sul expanded 56% (US$ 933 million), especially soy oil and raw chicken, followed by machinery and equipment, with growth of 37%.
In the analysis for the month of July, imports and exports from the state also grew. Purchases rose 42% (US$ 1.15 billion). With regard to sales, however, the evolution reached 11% (US$ 1.8 billion). The main destinations were China, Argentina and the United States. The Chinese received 26.5% of products shipped by the state.
Rio Grande do Sul is currently in the third position among the exporters, answering to 9.2% of Brazilian sales in the first seven months of the year. In the first place came São Paulo (29.6%), followed by Minas Gerais (11.9%).
CNI
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
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.