Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world and boasts the tenth largest economy. In 1994 the economy was US $536,309m which equals a per capita GDP of 3,370. Between 1985 and 1994 per capita GDP decreased by 0.4% this is due to the rapid population expansion of approximately 2% per year. During the same time period the real GDP increased by 2.1% and by 5.8% in 1994.(Europa 637) Fernanado Henrique Cordoso has brought inflation down to 1% a month or 12% a year. Prior to his election inflation sometimes reached upwards of 1000% a year.(Lomheim)

Industry is the largest component of GDP. It accounted for 34% of GDP and 23% of the labor force in 1994. This area has had an average GDP increase of only 0.7% during the period between 1980 to 1993. Agriculture which includes hunting, fishing, and forestry contributed 13.1% of GDP while employing 22% of the workforce. The major crops are soy beans, coffee, and sug

Brazil is a member of the World Trade Order, International Monetary Fund, The Organization of American States, The International Coffee Agreement, ALADI, and MERCOSUL trade agreements. Brazil's largest trading partner is the European Union followed by the United States. Its largest exported products were metallurgical products and followed by soybeans and the most imported product are machines and electric materials. In 1993 Brazil had a US $13.1 million dollar trade surplus.(PW 7) The average import duty on a product falls between 30% to 45% but there has been a trend in recent years to significantly lower the import duties. Passing items through customs is a very lengthy process unless your firm has a local agent who can speed up the process. (PW 52)

One major problem for the Brazilian economy is the absence of educated skilled labor. There is an abundance of semiskilled and unskilled labor in the country who are the majority in the workforce of 62 million people. Only 16% of those aged 15 to 17 were in school learning those valuable skills needed to excel in the workplace. Of those aged 7 to 14 thirteen percent were not enrolled in any form of educational activities. The adult illiteracy rate was 17.2% in 1995. (Europa 638) This is a major problem because the workers will be unable to properly communicate and understand management objectives and decisions.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2246
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)