Brazil Overtakes A G20 Nation As Sixth Largest Economy. Which G20 Nation?

By: EW News Desk Team   Date: 28 December 2011

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28 December 2011

Brazil has powered past Britain to become the world’s sixth largest economy, according to the London-based Centre for Economics and Business Research. Britain, in turn, drops slightly to seventh place.

Major Brazilian newspapers on Monday celebrated CEBR’s report that Brazil has overtaken Britain in sixth place, behind the United States, China, Japan, Germany, and France.

In a show of confidence, Brazil’s finance minister Guido Mantega said that Latin America’s largest economy will overtake even France or Germany, as Brazil’s GDP is growing twice as fast as its European counterparts.

Mantega added while the International Monetary Fund forecasts Brazil will become the fifth largest economy by 2015, he think it will happen earlier:

It is inexorable that in the future we will overcome France and, who knows, even Germany if its economy does not perform well.

Latin America's booming economic powerhouse will close the year with a GDP of US$2.5 trillion, behind fifth-place France with US$2.8 trillion and ahead of Britain with US$2.48 trillion.

Related: Brazil Economy Overview

Related: Brazil Trade Overview

Related: Brazil GDP, GDP Per Capita, Inflation, Unemployment Rate, Population, Trade Value

But Brazil trails in per capita GDP with a mere US$12,916, compared with US$48,147 for the United States, US$44,400 for France and US$39,604 for Britain, according to International Monetary Fund data.

"From a psychological standpoint, this is a fantastic year-end victory," Ricardo Teixeira, an administration professor at the prestigious Getulio Vargas foundation in Rio, told AFP.

"This announcement illustrates the greatness of Brazil and shows that the country is today a major economic power, this improved GDP is a consequence of all the measures implemented since the launch of the country's Real economic stabilization plan" in 1994, said Alex Agostini, chief economist at Austin Rating.

However, Agostini cautioned that a lot more work needs to be done, equivalent to about “20, 30 years of adjustments to reduce its social inequalities.”

Brazil has a very high tax burden, that of a developed country, but it provides society with public services such as health and education that are at the level of an underdeveloped country, he added.

Mantega agreed, estimating that Brazil would need between 10 to 20 years to match the European standard of living.

"This means that we will have to continue growing faster than those (developed) countries, boost the employment and the revenue of the population. We have a big challenge ahead," he added.

Related: Brazil Tax Burden as % of GDP

Related: Freedom From Corruption for Brazil 


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