Brazil

The object of this report is to provide a diagnosis of the major issues and options facing Brazil as it attempts to cope with the energy problem, which is largely a... Show More + result of a high demand for petroleum. The major issues in Brazil's energy sector include allocation of investment priorities between and within the various energy subsectors, the special problems of substitution of diesel oil, and issues related to overland gas imports and energy prices and taxes. The current situation, including the resource endowment, the energy balance, prices and organizational aspects, is reviewed. The prospects for energy supply and demand, the interfuel substitution and conservation programs, and various aspects of the investment program are examined. Show Less -

The first volume presents the Main Report of this eight volume study, and attempts to summarize the results of a number of investigative missions to Brazil in 1972.... Show More + Volume I discusses the economic and social trends; the development strategy, including the macro-economic goals; the public investment and its financing; private savings--monetary management and the capital market; and, the balance of payments and external debt. Volume II provides the mass of statistical data that was accumulated. Volume III describes and quantifies in both detailed and summary form public sector investment projects suitable for external financing. Volume IV evaluates the efforts being made to develop Brazil's Northeast region. Population, employment and education trends in the Northeast are analyzed in detail in Volume V. Volume VI analyzes the problems and prospects of agriculture in the Center-South. The textile, leather goods and fertilizer subsectors are analyzed in detail in Volume VII. Volume VIII provides a survey of the power sector. The report, in general, deals with the major elements of Brazil's economic progress problems and prospects. Show Less -

Brazilian farmers appear to be increasing output at a slower rate than in earlier years, but the farmer growth rate can be restored and exceeded if appropriate steps... Show More + are taken. A strengthening of current policies with some reorientation is suggested rather than any major policy changes. In order to alleviate the problem of high costs of inputs relative to prices, Government should provide farmers with minimum price alternatives until market and transport facilities can be improved. The agricultural credit system should be strengthened and expanded. Taxation should encourage efficient production and discourage wasteful use of resources. Transport and storage facilities need to be improved considerably. Preinvestment work needs further strengthening and coordination to assure more effective use of public funds, and heavy investment in education is of prime importance. Show Less -

The mission's value and quantity projections for exports, along with the data relating to the recent past. With respect to coffee, sugar, cocoa, meat, rice, corn, iron... Show More + ore and manganese ore, which account for about 85 percent of the total value of exports, the mission has made explicit assumptions regarding export prices and quantities. Between 1950-514 and `462-63, the Santos 4 price on the New York market declined from an average of nearly 60 cents to about 314 cents. Although the price rose sharply in 1964 because of frost and fire damage in Brazil, world imports showed no change from the level of the previous year because it is believed that roasters bought heavily, expecting the price to continue upward. The projection of cotton exports is based on the following assumption: a price of 25 cents per lb., i.e., $590/ton f.o.b. throughout, roughly equivalent to the current price level and that over the projection period the rate of growth in world consumption and trade would tend to decelerate to the rate of world population growth (approximately 1.7 percent per year). The limit to the future expansion of cot-ton exports would not be the domestic production potential but international demand, and Brazil should be able to maintain its recent share of that demand, which has been about 7-8 percent in recent years. For Bahia cocoa beans the mission has assumed a price of 20 cents per pound or $440 per metric ton on the assumption that there is no international cocoa agreement by 1970. If the Producers' Alliance Agreement, which is currently effective, remains in force by 1970 and is able to maintain a price of approximately 21.4 cents per pound or $472 per metric ton, the mission's estimate will be on the low side. A corresponding price for cocoa butter may be, approximately $1,000 per ton when beans are around $440 a ton. Show Less -