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BRAZIL BOASTS SOUTH America’s largest economy, with a
gross domestic
product
, or GDP, of $2.4 trillion in the year 2014. (GDP is the total value of
goods and services a country produces annually.) This ranked seventh
among all the world’s countries, and is the highest figure in South America.
From the late 1960s to the 1980s, many experts predicted that Brazil would
become one of the world’s leading economic powerhouses. It still may, though
it will have to overcome a burdensome debt problem. Today, Brazil’s public
debt—the amount the government has borrowed to finance its operations, and
must pay back—is more than half the total value of its GDP. What this means
is that each year, a huge amount of the wealth Brazil’s economy creates must
go toward paying interest on money the country has borrowed. In addition,
The Economy:
Powerhouse Potential
Brazil has built South America’s largest
economy, but industrialization has led
to environmental problems. (Opposite)
An offshore oil rig pumps oil off the
coast of Rio de Janeiro. (Right) A sugar
mill operates in Orindiúva. Brazil is the
largest producer of sugar cane in the
world. A proportion of the sugar is
turned into ethanol, a fuel that is widely
used in Brazil.
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