Richard Feinberg On Latin America's Economic Strides
Florida keeps close eye on booming Brazil
01/31/2011
Mimi Whitfield,
The Miami Herald
Brazil’s economy is booming. Prices for its commodities are stellar and unemployment is at record lows, but panelists at a Miami conference said there could be some clouds on the horizon.
Among the concerns are a growing current account deficit, an overvalued real, and mounting inflation, which could top 6 percent this year, said participants at “Forecast 2011: Economic and Political Risk Scenarios for Latin America.”
The conference, which was held Friday at the Four Seasons Hotel in Miami, was organized by the University of Miami’s Center for Hemispheric Policy.
Government spending is now growing faster than Brazil’s economic growth, said Amaury de Souza, a Brazilian who is a visiting fellow at the Center for Hemispheric Policy.
That means Brazil’s new president, Dilma Rousseff, faces a difficult balancing act of trying to finance the current account deficit, maintaining her predecessor’s expensive social programs and keeping the economy growing.
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Richard Feinberg can comment on U.S. foreign policy matters, notably with regard to Latin America and Asia, and business and economic matters.
