#brazileconomy

[faroldebrasil-blog]

Map of Companies provides information on the country's productive activity

Tuesday, the 2nd of June, 2020.

An online and free tool with accurate and updated data on productive activity in the country was launched by the Federal Government to help entrepreneurs when opening a business, regardless of the sector. The Brazilian Business Map allows, for example, to verify what type of activity is growing or falling inside Brazil, in addition to informing about the average time for opening a business, as explained by the Special Secretary for De-bureaucratization, Management and Digital Government, Paulo Uebel . “Before opening a company, you will be able, for example, to find out in which municipality it takes less time to open that business of yours. You will also be able to research which businesses similar to yours have already opened in that municipality. The new tool will facilitate and qualify decision making, so that the entrepreneur can have a more successful business. ” The Brazilian Business Map has updated information about companies. In practice, it allows the analysis of markets, competition, customers and suppliers by type of economic activity of the projects. It also helps the public manager to make decisions to reduce bureaucracy and speed up the opening of companies in his state or municipality. “Brazil needs to improve its position in the World Bank's Business ranking. For this, we need to reduce the time for opening companies in the country, ”said Paulo Uebel. This World Bank ranking measures a nation's ease of doing business. It evaluates, for example, the impact of laws and bureaucracy on the functioning of companies. According to the Special Secretary for De-bureaucratization, Management and Digital Government, one of the goals of the Federal Government is to be among the 50 easiest countries to do business within the criteria of the World Bank. “The Business Map will help precisely that. With it, we can monitor which states open faster or slower, which cities open companies in less time. Then, we will be able to help these states and municipalities to improve their work and, with that, generate better results for the country. ” To access the tool, just enter the Brazilian Business Map, from the Gov.br portal. The Map was created by the Department of De-bureaucratization, Management and Digital Government of the Ministry of Economy in partnership with the Federal Data Processing Service (Serpro)

According to the tool, Brazil has almost 18.3 million (18,296,851) active companies. In the first quarter of the year, 846,957 companies were opened; and closed 292,378. The average time for opening a business here was three days and 19 hours. A reduction compared to last year, when the national average was four days and 10 hours. In the first quarter of this year, the fastest growing activities in the country were, in this order: hairdressers, manicures and pedicures; retail sale of clothing and accessories; sales promotion; and masonry works. The exploration of data in the tool panels uses filters by year, month, region, federation unit, municipality, legal nature and economic activity.

Information: Serviço Federal de Processamento de Dados

[gheconomicsblog]

Brazil

Unemployment in Brazil is at record lows, and domestic demand has increased as personal incomes have risen. There is still vast inequality but the country’s GDP growth rate continues to grow. What has contributed to this?

One of the factors that has helped the Brazilian economy develop is foreign investment. In the first half of this year, foreign direct investment has reached sixty percent of its 2012 foreign investment target of $50 billion US dollars. The foreign investment into Brazil’s economy in 2012 is expected to cover the current account gap. This is good news for the Brazilian economy, as this is a sign that foreign companies are still seeing Brazil as a good place to invest in. The upcoming 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics have led to much needed investment in infrastructure: contracts worth billions of dollars have been awarded for stadiums, airport terminals and road building in preparation for the thousands of athletes and tens of thousands of visitors expected to descend upon Brazil in the next few years. Another main area of investment in Brazil is the massive offshore oil reserves, which have turned some Brazilian companies, in which the Brazilian government often has a stake, into global successes. For example the Brazilian government directly owns 54% of the common shares of Petrobras’, the fourth largest company in the world measured by market capitalisation. Petrobras controls oil and energy assets in 18 countries in Africa, North America, South America, Asia and Europe.

Exports exceed imports in Brazil, so there is a trade surplus unlike other countries such as the UK whose imports exceed exports. Policies have been promoted by the current Brazilian government to encourage exports, industry and trade, creating “windows of opportunity” for local and international investors. This has encouraged multinational companies to invest in Brazil, as the opportunity to make profits from exports has clearly been made available by government policies.

However investment as a whole in Brazil still lags far behind other developing economies. In Brazil investment is 19% of GDP, whereas in India and China, investment is 35% and 45% of GDP respectively. The International Monetary Fund has given warning to Brazil, to do far more to foster savings and investment by increasing the interest rate. This comes as President Dilma Rousseff’s administration cut interest rates to a record low, encouraging spending in an effort to “shield” Brazil from Europe’s debt crisis and China’s economic slowdown. Despite the comments from the International Monetary Fund, investors are still optimistic about investing in the Brazilian economy, given the stimulus the government is providing.

Will Brazil continue to maintain its rate of economic growth and remain part of the BRIC, or will it just go back to producing nuts?

By Riona Maclachlan