Question

Despite its abundance of natural resources, Brazil was once considered an economic “basket case.” Yet in recent years, Brazil’s economy has performed well. Employing the national competitive advantage theory, what factors might be behind Brazil’s economic progress? Please provide a thorough, but simple explanation. Please provide a paragraph or two explaining this.  

Answer 1

Brazil is South America's upper middle-income country with a population of 195 million people. Gross National Income (GNI) per capita in 2010 was $9,390–well above the upper middle-income average of $5,884–could Brazil (one of the BRIC) escape the middle-income trap?
Brazil has one of the highest urbanization rates in the world, with 87 per cent of the total population living in urban areas, compared with an average of 57 per cent for the upper middle nations.

In the world economy, Brazilian transnational corporations are becoming ever more popular. In 2011, Petrobas was ranked fifth in the world by market capitalization Agriculture has made a major contribution to Brazilian development–the volume of production in Brazil's agricultural industry, almost quadrupled between 1996 and 2006, and the nation is now one of the world's largest net exporters of wheat, soybeans, cattle, oil and iron ore.
Brazil is the biggest chicken, orange juice, coffee and sugar exporter in the world! It has a trade surplus with China and India in farm production.
The agriculture sector in Brazil is one of the biggest consumers of GM technology in the world

Over the past ten to fifteen years, the Brazilian government has invested heavily in anti-poverty programs and has praised as an example of a country where a well-designed policy mix can have a major impact. The proportion of the Brazilian population in extreme poverty has decreased from 23% in 1993 to 8.3% in 2009, and Brazil has reached its own Millennium Development Goal to minimize extreme poverty in 2015 to 1⁄4 of the 1990 rate–this goal was achieved in 2007.

Making the necessary improvements, regardless of the subject-economy, public services, climate-means making choices and creating political consensus around a reform programme. The nation will not have to do so for the first time: Brazil has proven capable of making large-scale changes. The challenges posed by the end of the super cycle of commodities are important, but Brazil stands by