The international crisis challenges the Brazilian model of economic opening and liberalization

Abstract

Reviewing the first months of 2009, it's surprising to see the Brazilian economy resistance over the international crisis. The decline on production and investment were intense, however, there has not been neither a foreign exchange crisis nor fiscal and financial system breakthrough. The government could apply anti-cyclic policies, as tax cuts and interest reduction, helped by the actual large extend of tax collection and banks strength, after years of high interest rates, besides using the public banks and the public funds, valuable legacy instruments. Regarding the external side, the capital inflow is stimulated by the wider liquidity generate by the US recent monetary expansion policy, while the exports are due to China demand maintenance, with significant increase in basic commodities and decrease of manufactured products. The capacity of reacting to the crises is a great test for the Brazilian model of economic opening, in the same way that the difficulties to sustain the industrialized good exports and recovery of investment rates in the manufacturing activities are considerable challenges.