According to a report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released Tuesday, Brazil is now the ninth-largest economy in the world, thus displacing Canada from that position.
Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes said Monday that his country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would outpace the most optimistic projections by the end of 2022.
Brazil's government on Tuesday outlined a long-term roadmap for the economy, based on three scenarios of economic and fiscal reforms that could lift gross domestic product per capita by as much as 37% over the next decade.
Brazil's Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles has admitted that the government is going to revise its official forecast for this year's GDP growth, but gave no details as to the extent of the change. In its latest forecast, the government had estimated the economy was going to grow 1% in 2017.
Brazilian president Michel Temer said that the economic adjustment implemented by Brazil is inspired in the program of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who led the UK from 1979 to 1990. As Thatcher use to say and we are following in Brazil, containing government expenditure is necessary because we are only going to spend collected revenue.
A Congressional committee in Brazil approved on Thursday a constitutional amendment that would limit public spending to the rate of inflation for 20 years, handing President Michel Temer an initial victory in his plan to plug a widening deficit, which if continued at the current rate could lead to fiscal collapse and public accounts insolvency, a repeat of the Greek tragedy.
Brazil's interim government said on Friday it has the political support for tough measures needed to return the economy to growth and can secure a permanent mandate once populist President Dilma Rousseff's impeachment trial is over. Presidential Chief of Staff Eliseu Padilha said the incoming government understood it was only provisional for now and had ordered portraits of Rousseff to be left hanging in federal buildings.
The soaring US dollar and Brazil’s slumping economy led to a weaker demand for imported goods and services in 2015. As a result, Brazil’s current account deficit reached USD 58.942 billion, equivalent to 3.32% of GDP. The result is the smallest amount since 2010. In 2014, the current account deficit reached USD 104.181 billion, or 4.31% of GDP.
Brazil’s Congress on Thursday approved a 2016 budget with surplus targets lower than what Finance Minister Joaquim Levy wanted, a day after the country lost an investment-grade credit rating on concerns about fiscal restraint.
Analysts expect Brazil's economy to contract by 3.62% this year, with inflation hitting 10.61%, the Central Bank said Monday. GDP and inflation estimates come from the Boletin Focus, a weekly Central Bank survey of analysts from about 100 private financial institutions on the state of the national economy.