adjustment program and pledging progress on structural
reform, Brazil received a $41.5 billion IMF-led international
support program in November 1998. Capital continued to leach out of
the country, and investors, concerned about the rising mountain of
debt and currency widely-viewed as overvalued, stayed on the
sidelines. In January 1999, Brazil made an abrupt shift of course in
exchange rate policy, abandoning the strong currency anti-inflation
anchor of the Real Plan. On 13 January 1999, Central Bank officials
announced a one-time 8% devaluation of the real, and on 15 January
1999, the currency was declared to be freely floating. President
CARDOSO remains committed to limiting inflation and weathering the
financial crisis through austerity and sacrifice as the country
rides out a deep recession. He hopes the country will resume
economic growth in the second half of 1999, so that he can once
again focus on his longer-term goal of reducing poverty and income
inequality. CARDOSO still hopes to address mandated revenue sharing
with the states and cumbersome procedures to amend the constitution
before the end of his second term.

GDP: purchasing power parity--$1.0352 trillion (1998 est.)

GDP--real growth rate: 0.5% (1998)

GDP--per capita: purchasing power parity?$6,100 (1998 est.)

GDP--composition by sector:
agriculture: 14%
industry: 36%
services: 50% (1997)

Population below poverty line: 17.4% (1990 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 0.8%
highest 10%: 47.9% (1995)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 2% (1998)

Labor force: 57 million (1989 est.)

Labor force--by occupation: services 42%, agriculture 31%,
industry 27%

Unemployment rate: 8.5% (1998 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $151 billion
expenditures: $149 billion, including capital expenditures of $36
billion (1998)

Industries: textiles, shoes, chemicals, cement, lumber, iron ore,
tin, steel, aircraft, motor vehicles and parts, other machinery and
equipment

Industrial production growth rate: 4.5% (1997 est.)

Electricity--production: 291.63 billion kWh (1997)

Electricity--production by source:
fossil fuel: 4.38%
hydro: 92.09%
nuclear: 0.8%
other: 2.73% (1996)

Electricity--consumption: 323.215 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--exports: 8 million kWh (1996)

Electricity--imports: 37.5 billion kWh (1996)
note: imported electricity from P