Investment near pre-crisis level
Folha de S. Paulo
A positive effect of the fall of the dollar revealed by the data of the GDP is the growth in the imports of machinery and equipment and the consequent increase of the productive capacity of the country, according to specialists. Together with the greatest domestic production of capital goods, the imports of the category supported the 3.9% growth of the investments in the third quarter, which, unlike the GDP as a whole, reduced the pace a little compared to the second quarter (growth of 4.3%).
Compared to the same period in 2009, the investments grew 21.2% less in the third quarter compared to the 28.1% of the previous quarter -, but they still kept a strong pace, according to experts. "There's a new cycle of investment, with the reduction in the costs of the imports and the growth in the production of machinery", says Bráulio Borges, Economist of LCA.
As a part of the GDP, in values, the investments reached 19.4% in the third quarter, only below the pre-crisis mark reached in the same period of 2008 (20.6%) in the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) series started in 2000. "It is a record for the standards of the Brazilian economy, but still not enough to sustain growth without inflation and other bottlenecks in the range of 4.5%", says Borges, adding that the ideal minimum investment rate is 22%.
As regards the GDP of civil construction, it fell 2.3% from the second to the third quarter, but it grew compared to the same quarter of 2009 (9.6%). In the opinion of Bernardo Wjuniski, of Tendências, there should be no expansion in Governmental consumption, after the restriction to a series of spending and inaugurations of works imposed by the electoral law in the months preceding the election.