Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira
In Bielschowsky, Ricardo and Carlos Mussi (orgs.) Políticas para a Retomada do Crescimento - Reflexões de Economistas Brasileiros. Brasilia: IPEA/CEPAL, 2002. Paper presented at the Centre for Brazilian Studies, Oxford University, February 23, 2001.
Abstract. An overview of the Brazilian economy since the 1970s. Income concentrated in the period, but only some addition reduction in wages and salaries as a consequence of a higher exchange rate will permit the country to resume growth.Effective macroeconomic stability and sustained economic growth will only be achieved in Brazil when the country settles the distributive inconsistency that arose in the 1970s. Since then the state and the nation started to incur respectively in high domestic and foreign debt. Wages grew at a slower rate than productivity, and income concentrated in the hands of business entrepreneurs and particularly of rentiers. Sheer populist practices, or disguised combination of neo-liberal and neo-populist policies were unable to address the problem. Budget deficits and high inflation, or exchange rate overvaluation and financial crises were the typical outcome. To settle distributive inconsistency by compensating in the short term workers for their income losses is not realistic.
