The Reform Process in Brazil. Examining the Roots of the economic stability and performance of Latin America's largest country

In 2003 Jim O'Neill, the head of global economic research at Goldman Sachs, coined the term BRICs to refer to four countries whose economies will be larger than the G6 in US Dollar terms by 2050 (Goldman Sachs 2003). The B in BRIC stands for Brazil. Brazil is today's fifth largest country in the world with an abundance of natural resources that is unique on the planet. Its role in a future globalized world is predetermined; Brazil is going to be the number one supplier of hard and also soft commodities for the rest of the world. However, since O'Neill referred to Brazil as one of the most promising economies of the future, Brazil has not been able to live up to the expectations. In terms of GDP growth Brazil has lagged behind the other three promising countries - Russia, India and China - but now after all Brazil is beginning to deliver (Prideaux 2009). In the light of the world's worst recession since the Great Depression, Brazil has shown that its economic policy in the past with the object to ensure macroeconomic stability, but at the cost of mediocre or rather low economic growth, was right and will permit Brazil to reap the rewards for the hard work in the past.This paper analyzes the path that Brazil's economy has taken to reach today's status; the status of a stable economy that shows high potential to meet the challenging expectations that economists set on it. The idea is to source the roots of the economic stability and performance of Latin America's largest country and to highlight the implications it will have in the near and remote future.