Brazil, a country to invest

By Mauro Ivan C. Ribeiro dos Santos, Dannemann Siemsen

According to recent news, Brazil overtook United Kingdom’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and became the world’s sixth largest economy.

The expressive results of the economy has also fueled the number of trademark and patent applications filed in Brazil. According to the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office, in 2011 local and foreign individuals and companies altogether filed 152.735 trademark applications, an increment of approximately 20% over 2010. In the same period, almost 32.000 new patent applications were filed, representing an increasing of approximately 14% over 2010.

These good news reflect the very auspicious moment Brazil has been going through, which is supported by other impressive numbers recently condensed by the prestigious local magazine EXAME:

a) 6,7% - This is the lowest unemployment rate over the last ten years. In fields like extraction, construction, real estate, financial intermediation and fuel retail services said rate is even lower. In turn, this number shows the high strength of the Brazilian domestic market.
b) 353 billion dollars – These are the country’s international reserves in last August, representing almost 50% more than the available reserves during the 2008 crises.
c) 400 billion dollars – This is the country stock of liquidity, providing the Brazilian Central Bank with a strong weapon to control the economy and deal with speculation.
d) 29 million people – This is the number of persons that ascended to the middle class from 2003 to 2009, craving for an enormous variety of products and services.
e) 7 million people – Equivalent to almost the entire population of Switzerland, this is the number of people that climbed to the upper income class during the 2003-2009 period, opening big opportunities for the luxury industry.

In addition, Brazil has been preparing itself to host the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, which will certainly result in a big extra surge to the economy in different areas such as urban transportation, security, energy, hotel accommodation & services, food and drinks, sporting goods, and civil construction & architecture.

Of course, these very encouraging numbers cannot overshadow the country’s difficulties in several fields reflected, for instance, by its still low ranking at the Human Development Index (HDI), high interest rates and infrastructure bottlenecks. However, the fundaments of the Brazilian economy and the size of the internal market show that the country has been going in the right direction with an enormous energy.