ating currency has also encouraged imports,
contributing to a growing trade deficit, and depressed export growth.
Brazil's more stable economy allowed it to weather the fallout in 1995
from the Mexican peso crisis relatively well, and record levels of
foreign investment have since flowed in, helping to swell official
foreign exchange reserves to $60 billion in 1996; stock markets
reflected this increased investor confidence, gaining 53% in dollar
terms. President CARDOSO remains committed to further reducing
inflation in 1997 and putting Brazil on track for expanded economic
growth, but he faces several key challenges. Fiscal reforms requiring
constitutional amendments are stalled in the Brazilian legislature; in
their absence, the government is continuing to run deficits and has
limited room to relax its interest and exchange rate policies much if
it wants to keep inflation under control. High interest rates have
made servicing domestic debt dramatically more burdensome for both
public and private sector entities, contributing to federal and state
budget problems and a surge in bankruptcies.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $1.022 trillion (1996 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 2.9% (1996 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $6,300 (1996 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 13%
industry: 38%
services: 49% (1995)

Inflation rate - consumer price index: 10% (1996)

Labor force:
total: 57 million (1989 est.)
by occupation: services 42%, agriculture 31%, industry 27%

Unemployment rate: 5.2% (1996 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $86 billion
expenditures: $90 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA
(1995)

Industries: textiles, shoes, chemicals, cement, lumber, iron ore, tin,
steel, aircraft, motor vehicles and parts, other machinery and
equipment

Industrial production growth rate: 3.5% (1995 est.)

Electricity - capacity: 59.036 million kW (1995)

Electricity - production: 268.874 billion kWh (1995)
note: imports some electricity from Paraguay

Electricity - consumption per capita: 1,572 kWh (1995 est.)

Agriculture - products: coffee, soybeans, wheat, rice, corn,
sugarcane, cocoa, citrus; beef

Exports:
total value: $47.7 billion (f.o.b., 1996)
commodities: iron ore, soybean bran, orange juice, footwear, coffee,
motor vehicle parts
partners: EU 26%, Latin America 22%, US 23%, Argentina 11% (1995)

Imports:
total value: $53.3 billion (f.o.b., 1996)
commodities: crude oil