Brazil Archives | Page 2 of 7 | Emerging Markets Today

How Covid-19 helped decrease the unbanked population in Brazil

April 23, 2020May 25, 2020 Ana Paula Picasso

The Brazilian government announced a financial support scheme aimed at self-employed and informal workers that had their incomes affected by the coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis. Brazil has a large population of informal workers: those who work cash-in-hand jobs, with no formal work contract. They are mostly unskilled or semi-skilled workers eg. street vendors, service providers like cleaning and home repairs. The financial support will come from state owned bank Caixa Economica Federal. Individuals under the scheme criteria have to open an account with Caixa to receive its benefits. The process is…

Opinion: will local brands dominate emerging markets?

March 15, 2019March 28, 2019 Ana Paula Picasso

The global market of consumer packaged goods is US$ 1.2 trillion and global brands are facing strong competition from local brands in emerging markets. And what’s the global companies’ strategy to remain in relevant in emerging markets? They act fast to acquire these established and already much profitable local brands. In India, for example, the government policy from the invasion of foreign brands made local brand Thumbs Up cola the country’s market leader. In the early 90’s, when the Indian government opened the market to multinationals, Coca-Cola was more than quick…

Latin America: 3 platforms changing the crowdfunding game

February 11, 2019June 18, 2021 Ana Paula Picasso

Here are 3 of Latin America’s biggest platforms running in the upfront of the crowdfunding game.

Brazil struggles to find a route to competitiveness

February 4, 2019February 4, 2019 Ana Paula Picasso

Why is everything so expensive in Brazil? I’m Brazilian and lived there most of my life and never understood it – until I came across this article by the Economist. Some of the main reasons are high taxation combined with a lack of competitiveness – the Brazilian Real ranks in 3rd place of most depreciated against the dollar in 2018, just behind the Venezuelan Bolivar. Not good news, not good news for Brazilians at all. According to a study by the Federation of Industries of São Paulo (Fiesp), a product manufactured in…

How China and Brazil are investing in Africa

January 28, 2019January 27, 2019 Ana Paula Picasso

After the economic slow-down, inflation and recession – and perhaps, some most pessimistic might say, the eminent down-fall of BRICS, all eyes turn to Africa as the new best thing regarding investments. Brazil and China have already been investing heavily in Africa, but how and where these two countries are investing in the African continent are strikingly different. China has been investing in infrastructural development such as, building highways in Tanzania, financing electricity projects in Sub-Saharan Africa and constructing whole towns in Angola. Most recently, Ethiopia made the headlines as the first African Sub-Saharan…

How urban farmers are revitalizing deprived areas of Brazil

January 21, 2019January 21, 2019 Ana Paula Picasso

São Paulo is a megalopolis with around 19 million inhabitants. Unsurprisingly, the city struggles to cope with the urban mobility issues caused by 7 million cars and poor public transport infrastructure. The real estate speculation made the city grow astronomically fast, without the necessary diligence towards urban planning; there are only a few parks and the lack of contact with nature and green areas is very apparent. Very few have caught onto urban agriculture. Even with its many problems there are hardly any initiatives, a handful at best are dotted around…

How women became the top entrepreneurs in Brazil’s slums

January 7, 2019January 7, 2019 Ana Paula Picasso

In one of my previous posts about the Brazil slums – Favela Rising – I talked about how resourceful someone has to be in the favelas (slums). That is exactly what I meant by the entrepreneurial spirit. But, what does it take for someone to be an entrepreneur in the most deprived parts of the country? According to a study from Data Popular in partnership with CUFA (Central Unica das Favelas), found that 29% of favela residents said the main reason to become an entrepreneur was the possibility to be…

WhatsApp skewed Brazilian election, proving social media’s danger to democracy

December 10, 2018December 10, 2018 Ana Paula Picasso

Misinformation via social media played a troubling role in boosting far-right Congressman Jair Bolsonaro to into the Brazilian presidency. Bolsonaro did not win 55 percent of votes thanks to misinformation alone. A powerful desire for political change in Brazil after a yearslong corruption scandal and a court decision compelling the jailed front-runner Luis Inacio Lula da Silva to withdraw from the race both opened the door wide for his win. But Bolsonaro’s candidacy benefited from a powerful and coordinated disinformation campaign intended to discredit his rivals, according to the Brazilian…

The Chinese Century: Is China-Brazil relationship a proxy of a new global governance?

May 17, 2018October 11, 2018 Ana Paula Picasso

Nature hates the vacuum, so do superpowers. Therefore, the geopolitical space allowed by the United States is seemingly being filled by China [1]. For instance, the Asian giant became Brazil’s most important trade partner in 2009 and Chinese investment in Brazil began around 2010 [2] as part of a state-led directive to increase China’s food and energy security through overseas acquisitions. Brazil plays an important role locally given the country´s economic weight and regional influence; therefore, a partnership with China changes the regional geopolitical landscape. The increase of interest in…