Brazil climbs to 3rd place in Latin American economic ranking
Folha de S. Paulo - 05/21/2008
Brazil reached the third place in the economic environment ranking of Latin America issued by FGV (Getulio Vargas Foundation) in April. A year ago, in the first measurement, the country was in the seventh place. Uruguay is in first place, and Peru, in the second. In FGV's project coordinator Lia Valls Pereira's opinion, 2007's economic growth and the granting of an investment grade have contributed. "The favorable news such as last year's 5.4% growth and the oil discoveries, have influenced the results". Since last April the country that worsened the most in the evaluation was Argentina: it went from 5th to 11th place. The main factor of concern in the neighbor country was inflation, she says. "There is a strong debate on the sustainability of the economic growth in this scenario". The survey tries to foresee economic tendencies based on quarterly information from specialists of many countries. In April, 133 specialists from 16 countries were consulted. Brazil's index climbed from 6.4 to 6.5 points, in relation to the last edition (January). Latin America's index fell from 5.2 to 4.9 points, below the average of the last ten years (5.1) and, for the first time since 2003, below the level of 5 points, which indicates bad economic performance. FGV says the worsening have followed the world trend. The world index fell from 5.1 to 4.6 points in the period.