Period of economic growth in Brazil
The
Brazilian Miracle
(
Portuguese
:
milagre economico brasileiro
) was a period of exceptional economic growth in Brazil during the rule of the
Brazilian military dictatorship
, achieved via a heterodox and developmentalist model. During this time the average annual GDP growth was close to 10%. The greatest economic growth was reached during the tenure of President
Emilio Garrastazu Medici
from 1969 to 1973.
James Petras
argues the short-lived economic miracle in Brazil was based on:
a) violent illegitimate seizure of political power by the military;
b) the institutionalization of violence through an extensive and intensive system of military-police controls throughout civil society;
c) the systematic use of terror to contain popular discontent, to disarticulate mass organizations and to destroy guerrilla resistance;
d) the elaboration of the National Security ideology to justify the State's "permanent state of war" against autonomous class or nationalist movements.
[1]
Perception of the so-called
Golden Age
of Brazilian development was strengthened in 1970, when Brazil, for the third time, won the
FIFA World Cup
, and the official adoption of the slogan "
Brasil, ame-o ou deixe-o
" ("Brazil, love it or leave it") by the Brazilian military government.
According to Elio Gaspari, in his book
A Ditadura Escancarada
: "The Brazilian Miracle and the
Years of Lead
happened simultaneously. Both were real, coexisting and denying each other. More than thirty years later, they continue to do so. For every person who thinks one existed, there is a person who doesn't believe (or doesn't like to admit) the other one happened."
[2]
Background
[
edit
]
During the presidency of
Joao Goulart
, the economy was nearing a crisis, and the annual
inflation
rate reached 100%. After the
1964 coup d'etat
, the Brazilian military was more concerned with political control and left economic policy to a group of entrusted technocrats, led by
Delfim Netto
.
[3]
Brazil became an urban society, with 67% of its people living in cities. That was caused by a population shift from the poorer countryside to the booming cities, with
Sao Paulo
growing faster than the others.
[4]
Brazil relied on a heterodox, developmentalist model.
[5]
Its expansion in this period relied on low wages, rapidly rising exports, and foreign capital inflows.
[5]
The growth during this period is associated with the government minister who oversaw the strategy,
Antonio Delfim Netto
.
[5]
Delfim Netto originated the phrase "cake theory" in reference to this model: the cake had to grow before it could be distributed.
[5]
Although the "cake" in Delfim Netto's metaphor did grow, it was highly unequally distributed.
[5]
Successes
[
edit
]
The government became directly involved in the economy, as it invested heavily in new highways, bridges, and railroads. Steel mills, petrochemical factories, hydroelectric power plants, and nuclear reactors were built by the large state-owned companies
Eletrobras
and
Petrobras
. To reduce the dependency on imported oil,
ethanol industry
was heavily promoted.
By 1980, 57% of Brazil's exports were industrial goods, compared with 20% in 1968.
[6]
In this period, the annual GDP growth rate jumped from 9.8% per year in 1968 to 14% in 1973 and inflation rose from 19.46% in 1968 to 34.55% in 1974.
[7]
Problems
[
edit
]
To fuel its economic growth, Brazil needed more and more imported oil. The early years of the Brazilian Miracle had
sustainable growth
and borrowing. However, the
1973 oil crisis
made the military government increasingly borrow from international lenders, and the debt became unmanageable. By the end of the decade, Brazil had the largest debt in the world: about US$92 billion.
[8]
Economic growth definitely ended with the
1979 energy crisis
, which led to years of
recession
and
hyperinflation
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Petras, James (1987).
"The Anatomy of State Terror: Chile, El Salvador and Brazil"
.
Science & Society
.
51
(3): 314?338.
ISSN
0036-8237
.
JSTOR
40402812
.
- ^
Gaspari, Elio.
A Ditadura Escancarada
. Sao Paulo: Cia. da Letras, 2002; ISBN 8535902996
- ^
Handler, Bruce (1975-06-08).
"Plying High in Rio"
.
The New York Times
.
ISSN
0362-4331
. Retrieved
2019-04-18
.
- ^
1968?1980: the 'Brazilian Miracle'
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Weber, Isabella
(2021).
How China escaped shock therapy : the market reform debate
. Abingdon, Oxon:
Routledge
. p. 244.
ISBN
978-0-429-49012-5
.
OCLC
1228187814
.
- ^
Pattnayak, Satya R. (1996).
Globalization, Urbanization, and the State: Selected Studies on Contemporary Latin America
. University Press of America.
ISBN
9780761803539
.
- ^
Economia Brasileira Contemporanea
. Giambiagi, Fabio,, Castro, Lavinia Barros de,, Hermann, Jennifer,, Villela, Andre ([3. ed.] ed.). Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. 2017-04-13.
ISBN
9788535238556
.
OCLC
1049153964
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
) CS1 maint: others (
link
)
- ^
Kilborn, Peter T.; Times, Special to The New York (1983-11-26).
"Brazil's Economic 'Miracle' and Its Collapse"
.
The New York Times
.
ISSN
0362-4331
. Retrieved
2019-04-17
.