Among Latin American countries, leadershipBrazil holds the overall economic potential. The industry of this country is important, but agriculture remains the main filler of the state budget. It employs over 20 percent of the population.
The main economic indicators of the country
Football, textiles, wheat, coffee ...What country are we talking about? Of course, about a state called Brazil! Industry and agriculture in this country are approximately equally developed, although the agricultural complex still leads in the number of people employed (20% versus 13%). About 60% of the population works in the service sector.
In the 1990s, Brazil experienced a crisis ineconomy, so investors were not in a hurry to invest in this country. However, over time, thanks to a competent policy, the situation in the state recovered. And at the beginning of the new millennium, all experts noted a marked increase in the Brazilian economy.
Сегодня Бразилия, промышленность которой provides almost 30 percent of GDP, is country No. 1 in terms of economic potential among South American states. Despite this, about 23% of its residents, according to UN findings, are below the poverty line.
The country annually exports products to almost200 billion dollars (imports - at 187 billion). Brazil's main exports are coffee, cars, biofuels, clothing, soybeans and wheat. The main partners of Brazil in the global market are: the USA, China, Argentina, Germany, the Netherlands and Japan.
Brazil: industry and its placement
Brazil is the country that, by virtue of itsnatural features is in dire need of a competent regional policy. Thus, the territorial distribution of the Brazilian industry is uneven. The contrast in economic development between the east and west of the country is striking.
Brazil’s most developed region is itssoutheast coast. It is here that the main financial centers of the country - the cities of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte - are located. The city of São Paulo is often compared with a powerful locomotive, which draws on itself the whole country.
In the south of Brazil, a large agricultural region was formed. The West and the center are the “wild”, often not mastered, expanses of Brazil, where animal husbandry is fragmentary developed.
Brazil: industry and its specialization
The number of people employed in the Brazilian industry is declining from year to year. Today, the main industries in Brazil are:
- power engineering;
- mining industry;
- light industry;
- automotive.
In particular, the country is among the world leaders in the production of biofuels and textiles, iron ore mining. Such is the modern specialization of the Brazilian industry.
About forty kinds of minerals are mined.today in this country. Among them, iron and tungsten ores, gold, zirconium and bauxite are the most important for the economy. But Brazil only meets its oil needs by half. Therefore, it is forced to import this energy resource.
Brazil's automotive industryrepresented by numerous enterprises of the international companies "Mercedes-Benz", "Scania" and "Fiat". About one and a half million cars and buses are produced in the country annually.
Other industries in Brazil are also quite developed. We are talking about light (production of fabrics and shoes), chemical industry and oil refining.
Energy and biofuel production
2756 power plants in operation today in Brazil.Their total capacity is 121,226 MW. Interestingly, over 80 percent of all electricity in the country is produced in environmentally friendly hydroelectric power plants (HPPs).
Brazil provides electricity not only for itself, but also for neighboring countries - Paraguay and Venezuela.
The country ranks second in the world bybiofuel production - bioethanol. In 2006, Brazil produced almost 17 million liters of this fuel, although the technological capacity of enterprises in this country is much higher. The raw material for this purpose is sugarcane, the plantations of which are also located in Brazil. Thus, here the Brazilian economy is completely independent of the conjuncture of the world market: if the demand for cane sugar falls, the country instantly reacts to it and produces more bio-ethanol.
Brazilian agriculture
According to the scale of agricultural production, the country is in the top three world leaders. So, Brazil supplies the world market with about 6% of the total agricultural production of the planet.
Brazil is, above all, the production of coffee,soybeans, corn, sugarcane, cocoa and bananas. Forestry has enormous prospects for development in the country. But this resource is not yet fully developed: it all comes down to collecting rubber and nuts. Although for the safety of the forests of the Amazon is a definite plus.
In recent years, Brazil has collected at least 600million tons of cane annually. This indicator is a record in the world. Of the grains, corn is revered most of all in the country: there are two harvests of this useful crop per year.
Livestock is about 40% of the value of all agricultural products in Brazil. It is developed in the central-western part of the country and is represented mainly by pasture cattle breeding.
Coffee production
Brazil is a "coffee" country. This is probably all they know. For more than a century, it has maintained leadership in the world in the production of coffee beans.
The very first coffee bushes in Brazil wereplanted in 1727. According to legend, they were brought here from French Guiana. Already in the middle of the XIX century, Brazil suffered a real coffee fever. This plant not only allowed Brazil to become an important player in the global market, but also stimulated the construction of the railway network in the country. By freight trains, coffee beans from inland areas were transported to large ports on the Atlantic coast.
In 2009, the country supplied the world market with almost 2 million tons of this product, which was 32% in percentage terms.
Finally
Brazil is the country with the largest economicpotential in the Latin American region. The main industries here are energy, mining, chemical, automotive and light industries. Brazilian agriculture specializes in the production of coffee, the cultivation of sugarcane, soybeans and corn.
