Economic Activity- Past and Present

Brazil has traditionally been a very agricultural society. Their main cash crop and export was sugar from the extraction of their sugar cane. However during the 1940’s the government built steel mills and refineries around the country. It also started building many hydroelectric dams to produce power for industrial expansion. The government also started setting up a national bank. This loaned money to people that wanted to start their own businesses. Manufacturing started thriving in the 1950’s and the result of this was the growth of huge metropolitan areas around the coast. However this rapid economic growth led to runaway inflation. This led Brazil with a budget deficit of over 200 billion dollars. The IMF bailed Brazil out on a loan. To pay the debt, many government enterprises were privatized, and Brazil by 2006 was able to pay the IMF back completely. The result of this was a diversified Brazil. There is a lot of tech and science companies based mainly in Sao Paul and Rio de Janeiro. There is also a lot of energy companies that provide energy through the dams. There are also many companies that are implementing and creating gashol, as sugar based energy source that is being promoted as a better alternative to gas .The exports area has also experienced a growth. 30.8 % of Brazilian exports is made up of industries such as computers, aerospace, petrochemicals and automobiles.

Analysis: Brazil has grown from a very agricultural economy. The growth of these industries has helped Brazil become a economic leader Latin America, however there are some downsides. The creation of these new industries has shifted the population to the coast. Cities like Sao Paul and Rio de Janeiro are experiencing huge population growths. These cities are unable to meet the demands of all of these people. This caused the growth of favelas, AKA slums. Brazil is a growing economy, and even though it is diversifying its economy the exports of beef and sugar and such as dominant. Another problem that is coming from the economic growth is deforestation.

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