¹ Estimates of the Central Bank Focus. Sources: Central Bank of Brazil and IBGE
Summary
Brazil is the sixth largest economy in the World, ahead of many European and Asian countries. It features a huge consumer market (189.3 million inhabitants), a stable and controlled economy (with a floating exchange system) and open to foreign investments. The financial market is highly efficient and modernized besides having major urban centres internationally known.
The country is a federation with direct elections at the federal, state and municipal levels. Brazil is divided into 27 states (including the Federal District) and 5 geographic regions. It has an active foreign policy characterized by its defence to self-determination of people, and its encouragement of a free international trade without non-competitive barriers.
The Arab influence is striking, there are approximately 10 million Arabs and descendants living in Brazil. This friendship has been reinvigorated after the visit of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to some of these countries in 2003.
Brazil has an open economy, with some sectors privatised (mainly in infrastructure) by a bidding of domestic and foreign companies. In 2007, the GDP growth was estimated in 5.4%, with a inflation of 4.5%. The trade flow, still in 2007, reached a record of US$ 281.2 billion, of which US$ 160.6 billion consisted of exports and US$ 120.6 billion of total imports.
These expressive numbers in Brazilian external accounts are results of a high competitiveness in sales of agricultural products, where Brazil is a leader in exports of the following products: sugar, coffee, orange juice, chicken, beef, tobacco and ethanol.
In 2007, Brazil obtained a good performance in the trade with the Arab countries, showing a growth of 4.41% in exports which reached a total of US$ 6.9 billion. Brazilian imports from the Arab world were not much lower, reaching a total of US$ 6.4 billion. Also in 2007, the trade flow between Brazil and the Arab Countries reached US$ 13.3 billion, 10.83% higher than in 2006.
The Arab countries are large consumers of chicken meat, beef, sugar, iron ore, and vehicles from Brazil. The trends are that, the Arab market will become more acquainted with a wider variety of products.
The growth of the foreign trade with Arab countries is a result of the acceptance of Brazilian products in such markets due to competitive prices and international quality, which are from a ceaseless quest, by the Brazilian companies, for new technologies and a productivity growth.
The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce relaunched the book "Elementary lessons in Arabic for non-speakers" (Lições elementares da língua árabe para os que não a falam), a basic manual of the language written by the Foreign Relations vice president at the organisation, Professor Helmi Nasr. Egyptian-born, Brazilian-naturalized, he was the founder of the Arabic course at the University of São Paulo (USP) and has lived in Brazil for 46 years.
This is only one of the Professor's works. He has already translated the Koran directly from Arabic into Portuguese. It has been in print since 2005 at the King Fahd Complex, in Medina, Saudi Arabia. He has also launched an Arabic-Portuguese dictionary and translated "New World in the Tropics," a book by Gilberto Freyre, into Arabic.
To help organizations to know better the Arab countries and markets and its opportunities, the Arab Brazilian Chamber has a specialized team of professionals to analize and generate economic, market and cultural information.
You can also find data about the foreign trade and opportunities.
The Arab Brazilian Chamber provides its users with the Arabic-Portuguese Dictionary of Prof. Dr. Helmi Nasr. The only online Arabic dictionary of Brazil.
Professor Helmi was appointed by the World Islamic League as one of the 21 wise men of Islam in the world and the only one in Latin America. In the Arab Chamber he is vice president of International Relations.
