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Brazil Overtakes UK as Sixth-Largest Economy
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- Created on Tuesday, 03 January 2012 12:13
The banking crash of 2008 and the subsequent recession has relegated the UK to seventh place in 2011, behind South America's largest economy. The only compensation for ministers concerned by Britain's relative fall is that France will fall at a faster pace.
Nicolas Sarkozy can still boast that France is the fifth-largest economy behind the US at number one, China, Japan and Germany, but by 2020, the Centre for Economics and business Research (CEBR) forecasts it will fall past the UK into ninth spot. Germany will also slip to seventh place in 2020.
CEBR chief executive Douglas McWilliams said: "Brazil has beaten the European countries at soccer for a long time, but beating them at economics is a new phenomenon. Our world economic league table shows how the economic map is changing, with Asian countries and commodity-producing economies climbing up the league while we in Europe fall back."
Europe is expected to suffer a "lost decade" of low growth following a credit binge over the past 20 years. Paying back debts over a short timescale will restrict growth and prevent many countries, including the UK, from clawing back output lost in the banking crash for many years.
The European Union, recently described by one Chinese official as "a worn-out welfare society", will remain the world's largest collective trading bloc, though a recession next year is expected to hit global growth. The latest forecasts by the CEBR show world growth falling to 2.5% in 2012, a downward revision from the forecast made in September. However, the CEBR warned a scenario involving "one or more countries leaving the euro, sovereign defaults and banks going bust and needing to be bailed out" would reduce global growth in 2012 to 1.1%. The European growth slowdown is forecast to be even more marked, with a fall in GDP by 0.6% and a possible fall of 2% if the euro currency club breaks up.
The US forecast is better, with growth of 1.8%.Emerging economies, which have seen their stock markets dive in recent months as investors assess the fallout from the euro crisis, would regain their momentum, said the CEBR.
Airport Contract Awarded
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- Created on Tuesday, 23 August 2011 10:42
The Inframérica consortium has won the contract to build and operate Brazil’s São Gonçalo do Amarante international airport. The consortium won the airport concession at an auction on Monday, after entering a bid of $106 million (170 million reais), according to Brazil’s civil aviation agency, Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil (Anac).
Terms of the contract state that the group has three years to build the airport and will then operate it for the next 25 years.
The Inframérica consortium is made up of Brazil’s Grupo Engevix and Argentina’s Corporación America. Engevix includes the construction arm Engevix Engenharia and three other companies. Anac added that the group plans to invest around $404 million in the airport throughout the contract period.
Despite the withdrawal of Grupo Aeroportuario del PacĂfico (GAP) from the bidding process last week, the auction still attracted four bidders in total. The unsuccessful groups included ATP-Contratec, Aeroportos Brasil and Aeroleste Potiguar. According to Engevix president JosĂ© Antunes Sobrinho, InframĂ©rica plans to have the airport ready in time for the 2014 Football World Cup.
Speaking to local newspaper Valor Econômico, Sobrinho said: “Commercially, it’s in our interest that the airport is ready in time for the Cup, so we can take advantage of peak demand at the terminal.”
The 28-year concession contract entails finishing construction of the airport –including completing the runways, take-off and taxiing lanes – and will also include building new terminals and operating and maintaining the airport.
On completion, it will be the largest airport terminal in Latin America and the seventh largest in the world estimated to handle around 3mppa in its first few years of operation, with traffic increasing to 11 million passengers by the end of the concesion period. It will also be the first gateway in Brazil to be privatized.
Brazil - steady growth for America's only BRIC
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- Created on Thursday, 01 December 2011 13:22
By Rubens Barbosa former Brazilian ambassador to the US and UK
Their origins can be traced to the country's modernization in the 1990s, as a result of a successful privatisation program, of the stabilisation of the economy and the strengthening of the banking system.
Regarding the economy, the administration by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (who used to oppose his predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso) kept the main economic policies in place: fiscal austerity, inflation targets and a fluctuating exchange rate.
As a result, the risks of investing in Brazil decreased significantly, economic growth rates went up, inflation rates retreated to levels similar to other countries around the world, and Foreign Direct Investment flows are only second to those of China.
The country's international reserves now exceed $350bn, which serve as a cushion to protect the country's economy against economic crisis abroad, such as in 2008 and now.
Foreign trade has multiplied by a factor of four, reaching half a trillion dollar in 2011, with China becoming Brazil's main economic partner, ahead of the United States.
The internationalisation of the Brazilian economy has accelerated, and the country's multinationals (banks and companies involved in construction, meat production, airplanes, steel, transport and textiles) have gained prominence overseas.
Coupled with wage growth above inflation and overall economic growth, up to 40 million Brazilians have joined the middle class. With that, the middle class accounts now for 50% of Brazil's 190 million people. The domestic market has expanded substantially, with an increase of lending to consumers.
With the strong backing of a stable and steadily growing economy, and gaining confidence from the global community, Brazil has taken on a bigger role on the international stage. Its foreign representations have been growing significantly, with the opening of over 40 embassies, mostly in Africa, Asia, Central America and the Caribbean.
Active foreign player
Brazil's inclusion alongside China, India and Russia projected the country to a position that in normal conditions it would have taken years to achieve.
Brazil is one of the main actors in international agencies for global issues, such as environment, climate change, energy (fossil and renewable), foreign trade, water and human rights. A natural candidate for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council (once its reform is decided), Brazil is a member of the G20 group, a new decisive forum for economic issues.
Brazil is the country that has probably benefited the most since the BRICs acronym came to life. Its inclusion alongside China, India and Russia projected the country to a position that in normal conditions it would have taken years to achieve.
As proposed by Brazil, the BRIC group was formalized itself and started to meet regularly, creating a relevant international factor through the political and economic weight of the four countries, now joined by South Africa.
The growing foreign presence is projecting Brazil beyond its borders in South America; the country is very active on the African continent and in the Middle East, mostly because of the its "soft power".
Website Launch
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- Created on Friday, 29 July 2011 14:49
We're happy to announce the launch of the new Palm Springs Natal website.
We're now delighted to be able to offer this exclusive investment opportunity to the private investment market. This fantastic opportunity to invest in one of Brazil's most exclusive and exciting condominiums has been packaged up to attract serious investors to one of the worlds hottest spots for investment.
