Brazil’s economy is by many misconsidered to be completely depending on exports of agriculture products and ores.
First of all, the importance of export to the GDP of Brazil is fairly low (<17%) compared to its peers (China,…).  And secondly, its economy is extremely diversified.
Mercedes announced today that Brazil is its number one producer of trucks worldwide today, surpassing the production in Germany itself.   The factory in Juiz de Fora (Minas Gerais) will be expanded substantially to fill in demand.

But this excellent letter from Alberto Desirelli to Marc Faber points to a much more painful shortsightedness of the developed world:

Thomson Reuters, which indexes scientific papers from 10.500 journals worldwide, analyzed the performce of four emerging markets compared to developed markets over the past 30 years.The Thomson Reuters figures show not only the “awe-inspiring” expansion of Chinese science but also a very powerful performance by Brazil, much slower growth in India and relative decline in Russia.

In contrast to China, India and Russia, whose research strengths tend to be in the physical sciences, chemistry and engineering, Brazil stands out in health, life sciences, agriculture and environmental research. It is a world leader in using biofuels in auto and aero engines.
Read the full articles in the Financial Times and The Telegraph.

Meanwhile, month after month, Belgian is breaking records with bankrupcy figures.

Also the entrepeneurial sector is kickstarting a vibrant period in Brazil, Ago Cluytens devoted an excellent piece on it on his Blog.  The piece also featured on startupi in Portuguese.

Tags: research

Tomorrow the Belgian Economical Mission under leadership of prince Filip starts.     You can follow the mission here on De Tijd.
An impressive delegation of 227 business people and 22 journalists are joining; you can download the complete list here.

Belgium is a country which is absolutely under-represented in Brazil compared to European average figures and especially compared to the French doing business with and in Brazil.  And this in times where our export-driven Flemish economy is in such desperate needs.
Mieke Pynnaert, Flemisch Economic Representative São Paulo at Flanders Investment & Trade is doing a great job with her team in changing this.   But again here,  the Begian politicians fail.

Belgian minister of ICT, Telco, Economy and Reform Vincent Van Quickenborne would by the Belgian federal minister joining the mission, together with Minister of foreign affairs Steven Vanackere.  Both consider their own personal political interests to be more important than the interests of the economy of Belgian and decided 2 days before the mission starting to cancel their presence and focus on their personal campaign for the elections of June  13; read the press on it here.

Concusion: @VincentVQ: fail.

Tags: Vincent Van Quickenborne, VincentVQ

On Bloomberg today:
“Pacific Investment Management Co. said the debt crisis in Europe shows its outlook for an extended period of below-average economic growth remains valid, even after global markets rebounded from the financial crisis”
…
“What is happening in Europe is a vivid illustration of an underlying theme of the new normal,” Mohamed El-Erian, the chief executive officer of Pimco, said in an interview. There are “structural forces overwhelming traditional cyclical ones,” he saidPimco, which coined the phrase “new normal” a year ago to describe a world characterized by high unemployment rates, more regulation, and a shrinking importance of the U.S. in the global economy, reiterated the view at its annual investment meeting last week in Newport Beach, California, the firm said today on its website. t is even clearer today than it was a year ago that the global economy has embarked upon a multiyear journey that is subject to many tensions,” El-Erian wrote in a commentary on the website
…
“Growth and wealth will shift to emerging economies such as Brazil, China and India, driven by rising employment and income, according to Pimco. Europe will struggle as it tries to ward off deflation, and questions are “multiplying” about the euro and the makeup of the euro zone, El-Erian said.

Tags: the new normal

We wrote previously on America Movel (AMX), the mother company of Claro, one of Brazilian’s fast growing mobile operators.

IDB just published this 234 page report on “Multi Latinas”, agressive Latin American companies that are a byproduct of the market liberalization that swept Latin American economies in the 1990s.    Their broadening reach through the United States and the rest of the world which has been simmering below the surface for years is beginning to turn heads.

An excellent in-depth report, highlighting the following Brazilian companies:
Natura
Vale
Petrobras
Politec IT
Embraer

One could easily add to the list:

TAM
Odebrecht / Braskem
Aracruz / Fibria
Suzano
Amanco

Read the full report here.

The growth reflects Brazil’s thriving middle class growth and buying power.
The Brazilian mobile operator Claro will grow it’s current market share by 25%.

We bought in Claro’s mother company (America Movel: AMX) at 44,39 USD on the NYSE end of February; yielded 4,4% dividends in 2007 and has a solid valuation growth potential above 60 USD.

Tags: amx, claro