OECD: economic surveys: France, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Argentina

Economic Survey of France Global economic conditions, monetary policy and structural reforms have supported exports and investment in recent years. However, global uncertainties and the effects of social unrests weighed on activity in 2018.   Available in ENGLISH and FRENCH OECD Secretary-General, Angel Gurría, with the French Minister of Economy and Finance, Mr. Bruno Le Maire.

Economic Survey of Italy Italy continues to suffer from long-standing social and economic problems. Italy's GDP per capita is at the same level as 20 years ago and well below its pre-crisis peak. GDP growth has slowed and is projected to contract by 0.2% in 2019 and expand by 0.5% in 2020. Expansionary fiscal policy and low growth will push the general government budget deficit to 2.5% of GDP in 2019 from 2.1% in 2018. Available in ENGLISH and ITALIAN

Economic Survey of Sweden GDP has expanded at an average rate of close to 3% over the past five years. Employment has grown steadily and the unemployment rate has fallen. But jobseekers are increasingly low-skilled and immigrants, who struggle to find jobs.. Read more... OECD's Secretary-General, Angel Gurría, with the Swedish Minister of Finance, Madame Magdalena Andersson

Economic Survey of Argentina The economy is in recession. A strategy of reducing the large fiscal deficit only gradually, the reliance on its foreign financing and high interest rates due to tight monetary policy opened up significant vulnerabilities. In April 2018, markets reacted with a reversal of capital inflows, exacerbating a slowdown of currency inflows due to a record drought. Available in ENGLISH and SPANISH

Economic Survey of Portugal Economic conditions in Portugal have improved markedly over the past few years. GDP is now back to its pre-crisis level and the unemployment rate has declined 10 percentage points since 2013 to below 7%, one of the largest reductions in any OECD country over the past decade. Available in ENGLISH and PORTUGUESE

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JAPAN - Economic Survey 15 April CHINA - Economic Survey 16 April  MEXICO - Economic Survey - 2 May OECD Economic Projections - 21 May

OCDE: Brasil acelera adesão

Brasil reforça negociações em Paris para entrar na OCDE

ABr14 fevereiro, 2018

OCDE / Flickr

Entrada da sede da OCDE em Paris

O Brasil vai intensificar as negociações para o acesso do país à Organização para a Cooperação e Desenvolvimento Econômico (OCDE). Enquanto tenta cumprir os prerrequisitos para se candidatar a membro pleno, a representação diplomática ganhará reforço em Paris a partir de março, onde a OCDE e outros órgãos comerciais ficam sediados.

O embaixador Carlos Márcio Cozendey, atual subsecretário-geral de Assuntos Econômicos e Financeiros do Itamaraty, foi designado pelo presidente Michel Temer como delegado junto aos organismos internacionais de Paris, com uma equipe dedicada ao assunto. A decisão demonstra o interesse do Brasil no acesso ao órgão.

Antes de partir ao país europeu, Cozendey receberá o secretário-geral da OCDE, Angel Gurría, no Brasil em 28 de fevereiro, quando será lançada uma nova edição da pesquisa econômica que a organização faz sobre o Brasil.

Composta por 35 países-membros, a OCDE é um fórum cuja missão envolve a cooperação e o intercâmbio de boas práticas sobre políticas públicas. Somados, os integrantes são responsáveis por 62% do PIB global e por dois terços dos negócios internacionais. Embora o Brasil tenha participação ativa em diferentes fóruns da organização, apenas Estados Unidos, Canadá, México e Chile são países-membros.

Segundo o Cozendey, discussões iniciadas na OCDE costumam influenciar decisões de outros órgãos internacionais, como a Organização Mundial do Comércio (OMC) e a Organização das Nações Unidas (ONU), o que torna mais relevante ainda a importância da participação.

“A OCDE faz recomendações que registram as melhores práticas em determinada área. Participar da formulação disso, indica que o país vai ter influência na formulação desses padrões. Embora não seja uma organização global, como são países grandes e importantes economicamente, o padrão acaba se tornando internacional”, explicou o diplomata.

Apesar de já ser um parceiro-chave participar de 23 diferentes órgãos da OCDE, o acesso como membro sinalizaria um compromisso do Brasil com uma economia aberta, previsível, responsável e transparente, segundo avaliações do governo brasileiro.

A formalização da candidatura depende da adequação do país com 237 recomendações. O ­Brasil já aderiu a 36 dessas normas e pediu a adesão de outros 74 instrumentos.

O representante do Itamaraty considerou positiva a adequação das políticas brasileiras às recomendações da OCDE. Segundo ele, os ministérios encontraram dificuldades em apenas 10% delas. Em outros 15% foram encontrados conflitos com a legislação, mas os órgãos concordaram com o conteúdo.

Atualmente, há três países em processo de integração à OCDE: Colômbia, Costa Rica e Lituânia. Outros cinco, além do Brasil, entraram com pedidos de candidatura: Argentina, Bulgária, Croácia, Peru e Romênia.

Ciberia // Agência Brasil

Brazil economy: special 2013 survey by OECD - summary

Economic Survey of Brazil 2013

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Data | Obtain this publication | Additional information | Overview Overview (Portuguese version) Speech in English and in Portuguese by OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría Brazil has moved up the ranks of the world’s largest economies while achieving much more inclusive growth than in the past. Stable and predictable macroeconomic policies underpinned these gains. More recently, demand has been supported by macroeconomic stimulus, which has encouraged the expansion of the non-tradable sector, while manufacturing is suffering from declining competitiveness, and supply-side constraints appear to be biting. Inflation has remained high and has been allowed to drift momentarily above the tolerance band, and monetary policy credibility risked being undermined by political statements about the future trajectory of interest rates. The central bank started a tightening cycle in April of 2013. The fiscal rule has also been undermined, as the inflexible fiscal target ‑ defined in terms of a primary surplus – has required unusual but legal measures to account for cyclical weakness and meet the target, reducing clarity. Fiscal challenges in the longer term are rising as the population will start to age fast in a decade from now and pension expenditures are already rising.

The global crisis has brought shortcomings in productivity and cost competitiveness to the fore. Supply-side constraints, which are increasingly impeding growth, include pressing infrastructure bottlenecks and a high tax burden, exacerbated by an onerous and fragmented tax system. A tight labour market and continuing skill shortages have resulted in strong wage increases. Although credit is rising at a substantial pace, investment financing at longer maturities continues to be scarce. Further development of long-term credit markets is hampered by a lack of private participation, owing to a uneven playing field caused by strong financial support to the national development bank which dominates long-term lending. Brazil’s participation in international trade and its integration into global production chains is below what would be expected in an economy as large and sophisticated as Brazil’s, and domestic producers continue to be shielded from foreign competition.

Substantial progress has been made in the sustainable use of natural resources. Energy generation relies strongly on renewable sources. Ethanol is a key ingredient of this strategy, but the pricing decisions of the majority government-owned oil company have resulted in petrol prices below import costs, undermining the ethanol industry. Carbon emissions have declined and deforestation has slowed, although its current pace still implies the destruction of forests of the size of Belgium (or the Brazilian state of Alagoas) every 5‑6 years.

Successful policies to spread the benefits of economic growth more widely have substantially reduced poverty and income inequality. Wider access to education have allowed more Brazilians to move into an expanding number of better paid jobs. However, the quality of education has not kept pace with the impressive expansion of the system. There are severe shortages in physical school infrastructure. A still-large number of students drop out from secondary education, and the vocational education sector is small, although increasing. Transfer payments have also relieved poverty and enhanced incentives to invest in human capital. Social expenditures have been heavily focused on pension payments, although conditional cash transfers have proven an effective tool to address poverty and inequality. The tax system, by contrast, is characterised by a low degree of progressivity which limits its redistributive impact.

 

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- Inflation, inflation expectations, unit labour costs and the unemployment rate- Primary balance and overall balance
- International reserves and external debt
- Net replacement rates of pension benefits for average earners
- Wages and productivity in the industrial sector and relative unit labour costs
- Tariff protection levels
- Brazil's energy mix
- Forest depletion has slowed
- Income inequality in international comparison
- Poverty and inequality over time

How to obtain this publication

 The complete edition of the Economic Survey of Brazil is available from:

• OECD iLibrary for subscribing institutions.
• OECD Online Bookshop 
• Order from your local distributor
• Government officials with accounts (subscribe) can go to the "Books" tab on OLIS
• Accredited journalists, password required

Additional information

• Economic Surveys and Country Surveillance
• Timetable of planned EDRC Meetings
• List of recent Surveys of Brazil
• OECD Brazil
• OECD Economics Department homepage

For further information please contact the Brazil Desk at the OECD Economics Department ateco.survey@oecd.org.

The Secretariat’s draft report was prepared for the Committee by Jens Arnold and João Jalles under the supervision of Pierre Beynet. Research assistance was provided by Anne Legendre and secretarial assistance by Sylvie Ricordeau. 

http://www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/brazil-2013.htm

OECD: Economic Survey of Brazil

Economic Survey of Brazil

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How to obtain this publication | Additional information  Overview of the Economic Survey of Brazil 2011 Overview in Portuguese Since the mid 1990s, Brazil has enjoyed improved economic and financial stability largely owing to a strengthening of its macroeconomic framework. In order to quickly catch up with the group of high income countries the overriding need is to achieve strong and sustainable growth. This will require continued good macroeconomic, social and environmental policies and structural reforms designed to boost savings and investment and foster infrastructure development. Higher international uncertainties and cross country interdependence, rapid population ageing and a greater reliance on oil revenues will call for policymakers to expand their tool kit to respond to this challenge. The key macroeconomic challenge is to damp inflation in a context of abundant global liquidity. The economy recovered rapidly from the 2008-09 global crisis thanks to a timely policy response. Annual growth in 2010 was the strongest in two decades. Driven by both structural factors and international financial conditions, the real has steadily appreciated since 2003, except during the 2008 financial crisis and more recently when a flight from risk in the midst of financial-market turbulence weakened it. Inflation pressures have emerged. To prevent excessive currency fluctuations and safeguard financial stability the authorities initially combined increases in interest rates and reserve requirements with foreign exchange intervention and a temporary tax on short term capital inflows (IOF). As the global outlook worsened, the policy mix was shifted toward easier monetary policy and some fiscal consolidation. If that proves insufficient in the current uncertain environment, policymakers can have recourse to macro prudential measures or adjusting the IOF. However, they should rely more prominently on fiscal consolidation. The spending cuts announced earlier this year and the setting of primary surplus targets for the next three years in levels consistent with public debt reduction in the draft 2012 Budget Law are welcome and the government should continue in this direction. Over the medium term, moving to a headline budget target and introducing an expenditure ceiling while removing widespread revenue earmarking would foster sustainability of government and social security accounts. Working Paper 899: Refining macroeconomic policies to sustain growth in Brazil Working Paper 901: Explaining the appreciation of the Brazilian real Social progress has been impressive, with a marked fall in poverty and inequality. The fight against extreme poverty has been put at the forefront of the government policy agenda. Since 1993, Brazil has experienced a sharp and continuous decline in inequality, reflecting good labour market performance and successful redistribution policy. The poverty rate has declined by half. This remarkable progress must be continued to further reduce the still high levels of inequality and poverty. Further required action will involve an extension in scale and scope of the highly efficient conditional cash transfer programme Bolsa Familia, which has managed to relieve poverty at relatively low fiscal cost. Download underlying data from graph Removing obstacles to investment will be crucial to sustaining strong economic growth. A shortage of public and household saving appears to be a major barrier to higher investment rates. Parametric reforms to the pension system could restore its sustainability. Reduced expected pension benefits could also encourage people to save more during their working lives. Lower bank reserve requirements, the removal of directed lending obligations and a liberalisation of savings accounts would help to spur investment. Approval of the federal government’s proposals to simplify the tax system would also strengthen investment incentives. The authorities have started to implement measures to develop private long term capital markets. Levelling the playing field between private sector banks and the national development bank and providing an explicit tax credit independent of the lending institution could further facilitate private entry in long term financial markets. Once private lenders have entered the segment, subsidies could be phased out progressively. Working Paper 900: Raising Investment in Brazil  Faster infrastructure development would help to achieve better economic and social performance. For Brazil, returns to investment in infrastructure are likely to be substantial, especially if designed with environmental benefits in mind. The government is implementing a second large infrastructure programme, which has been rightly protected from fiscal cutbacks. A stronger focus on its most worthwhile projects would facilitate implementation. Attracting sufficient private investment will require streamlining the public private partnership framework. Despite progress, frequent disputes around infrastructure projects often slow the licensing process. This could be addressed by adopting rules for financial compensation for residents harmed by projects. It is in water and sanitation that needs are greatest. The formation of local consortia needs to be encouraged to reap available economies of scale. Working Paper 898: Promoting infrastructure development in Brazil