Thursday, July 31, 2008

Brazil: The anti-globalist?

NYTimes has a profile on Brazil today. Probably the most interesting part of the story is about Brazil's self-sufficiency.

Here's the money quote:
“What makes Brazil more resilient is that the rest of the world matters less,” said Don Hanna, the head of emerging market economics at Citibank.

As I've looked at Brazil that has been the one thing that has impressed me the most. The country really has been able to build and grow domestic industries and feed its own growth through internal consumption.

Of course, Brazil hasn't had the GDP growth numbers that other large, more "globalized" emerging markets have demonstrated; Brazil's GDP growth has been in the 4-5% range vs. India's 7% range and China's +9-10% range.

But what it lacks in GDP growth, it makes up in resiliency. It is still a tough story to tell because despite the great social advances as of late in Brazil, it is hard to see how 5% growth will really make a dent in the huge social inequalities in the country.

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