U.S.-based Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) released Friday, September 22, its issue brief, "Brazil’s Presidential Election: Background on Economic Issues."
The paper looks at the last four years of economic policies and results and considers what changes in economic policy might take place in the next few years.
"The big challenge for Brazil will be to restore reasonable economic growth, to bring to an end the 25-year economic growth failure that has plagued the country," said economist Mark Weisbrot, co-director of CEPR and principal author of the report.
Brazil’s GDP per person has grown only 11% over the past 25 years, or less than one half percent annually. By comparison, from just 1980-2000 it grew by 123%. The paper notes that if Brazil had continued growing at its pre-1980 rate, which was nowhere near the fastest among developing countries, it would have European living standards today.
Per capita income has grown about 1.4% annually for the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva presidency, about the same as during the previous 8 years of Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s presidency. This was enough to match the expansion of the labor force, but not enough to make a dent in the country’s high unemployment rates.
"Of all the policies stifling growth in Brazil, the excessively high interest rates set by Brazil’s Central Bank are probably the most destructive," Weisbrot noted.
Short-term rates are currently set at 14.25%, as compared to 5.25 in the United States, despite the fact that the two countries have about the same rate of inflation (Brazil’s is slightly lower).
The report looks at monetary and exchange rate policy, the "Bolsa Família" anti-poverty program and other policy measures implemented in recent years. The analysis indicates that achieving significant reductions in poverty and unemployment will be difficult or impossible without macroeconomic policy changes that can restore healthy rates of economic growth.
The Center for Economic and Policy Research is an independent, nonpartisan think tank that was established to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people’s lives.
CEPR’s Advisory Board of Economists includes Nobel Laureate economists Robert Solow and Joseph Stiglitz; Richard Freeman, Professor of Economics at Harvard University; and Eileen Appelbaum, Professor and Director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University
You can read the paper in its entirety here: www.cepr.net/publications/Brazil_2006_09_22.pdf
