Publication: The Brazilian Competitiveness Cliff
Date
2013-02
ISSN
Published
2013-02
Author(s)
Abstract
Brazilian exports of goods and services
have grown sharply in recent years, with sales nearly three
times higher in 2010 than in 2000. However, Brazil faces
considerable competitiveness challenges: its export
performance depends mostly on favorable geographical and
sector composition effects. Such challenges increased after
the recent global economic crisis. A recent slowdown in
industrial exports, production, and investments seems
related to supply-side difficulties stemming from a wide
range of inefficiencies and rising costs, rather than
insufficient demand. Although a stronger currency is one of
the factors behind the lower competitiveness of
Brazil's manufacturing exports, sluggish productivity
performance, lack of dynamism at the firm level, and a real
wage uptrend seem to explain a significant part of the
overall loss of competitiveness. This diagnostic reinforces
the urgency of resuming the agenda of microeconomic reforms,
increasing the investment-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
ratio, and advancing toward better-skilled human capital.
Citation
“Canuto, Otaviano; Reis, Jose Guilherme; Cavallari, Matheus. 2013. The Brazilian Competitiveness Cliff. Economic premise;no. 105. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/17038 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”