BRIC Watch: Brazil climbs out of recession

The BBC reports that one of the BRIC nations - Brazil - is emerging from the recessionary stage of the economic cycle. “The largest economy in Latin America expanded by 1.9% in the second quarter from the previous three months.”. The article also flags up three policies that may have helped to bring about a turning point in the economic cycle: “Brazil has poured money into large-scale public infrastructure projects, cut taxes on new cars and passed tax breaks on companies and individuals.”

Can you name an example of a “public infrastructure project”?

Why might the government have chosen to cut the tax on new cars?

What is a tax break?

As a linked article Steve Schifferes from BBC news looks at the financial costs of the credit crunch and the many government bail-outs of banks and other lenders that have fallen into deep trouble because of toxic debts

“The world’s largest economies have spent $10,000 for every person in a bid to fix the financial meltdown of the past year…..most of this bail-out money was in the form of guarantees to the banking system, and as that system pulls out of the crisis, governments stand to recover most but not all of that money.”