ABSTRACT
Brazil is a country of contradictions. Blessed with an immense wealth of natural resources, yet the wealth is being gradually squandered. Despite being endowed with an abundance of land, most of Brazil’s territory is owned by a minority of the population. Brazilian GDP growth throughout the better part of the twentieth century has reinforced—and been reinforced by—such contradictions. The exceptionally rapid GDP growth experienced by Brazil has spawned a voluminous literature on the subject, most of it laudatory, but some more skeptical. During the so-called miracle years of 1967-1976, Brazil’s real GDP grew at an annual rate of 8.4 per cent, and GDP per capita at 5.7 per cent per annum. Yet the country’s subsequent macroeconomic performance was more modest. At over 165 million people, Brazil’s population is the fifth largest in the world. The country also ranks fifth in area, totaling 8.5 million square kilometers. Although much of Brazil is sparsely populated, its population density is far from uniform.
