In a recent overview of Brazil’s economic situation, finance minister Guido Mantega predicted that GDP growth during 2012 will be somewhere between 4% and 5%, with a figure closer to 4% likely if the current global economic problems continue. He also said he expected Brazil’s final growth figure for 2011 to be between 3% and 3.5%.

He pointed out that Brazil has recently overtaken the United Kingdom as the world’s sixth largest economy (it is now behind only the US, China, Japan, Germany and France) and suggested that in the next few years it will rise further in the ranking, given that in 2011 its growth rate was higher than any of the other top six countries apart from China.

He expressed particular satisfaction with the rate of job creation, which has pushed unemployment down to a historic low of 5.2%. "In a year in which unemployment rose in the rich countries, Brazil managed to create 2.3 million formal jobs up until November," he said.

Earlier this week it was announced that Brazil’s annual inflation rate in 2011 was slightly under 6.5% – just inside the target range of 4.5% plus or minus two percentage points. Mantega forecast that annual inflation in 2012 will be much nearer the middle of the target range, at around 4.7%.

Source: Finance Ministry and Embassy of Brazil in London