Investors into the Brazilian real estate market will be heartened by the raft of positive news emerging from Brazil with regard to the economy, GDP growth and the boom in Latin Americas largest economy.

The Brazilian Government has released economic data showing a 1.9 per cent increase in real GDP in the second quarter. This has led to Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas revising their original growth forecasts upwards.

The Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega stated that Brazil’s economy has rebounded from the global financial crisis. Brazil has defied analysts’ previous forecasts and the figures bode well for 2010. Analysts forecasts from July 2009 have increased from 3.5% to 4 %, according to a weekly central bank survey of about 100 economists. Analysts predict the economy to only shrink 0.16 per cent this year, down from 0.73% predicted in May of this year.

Mantega adds the growth in Brazil is based upon positive trends in employment, services and industry. The Central bank of Brazil states that the new figures confirm that Brazil has already come out of recession.

The Brazilian economy has been helped by a surge in domestic spending, which increased 2.1% over last quarters figures and by a series of measures introduced by the Brazilian Government, chief among them the Minha Casa, Minha Vida scheme brought in to re-invigorate the domestic housing market.

Brazils construction industry was heading into decline after several years of strong growth and this scheme has reinvigorated the construction industry, which accounts for 5 per cent of Brazils gross domestic product.

The Minha Casa, Minha Vida scheme will receive another 10 Billion Reais in 2010 from the Federal Government. Brazil has a housing shortage estimated at 8 million units and this scheme was bought in by the Government to provide affordable housing and to stimulate the construction industry downturn caused by the worldwide economic crisis.

As a member of the Group of Twenty economies, Brazil follows Germany and Spain to emerge from recession. Both European countries posted growth of 0.3% in the same period.

Leslie Richards is a land consultant to Brazil land Invest and wrote this piece on the Brazilian economy and affordable housing sector. The author invites you to visit Brazil Land Invest for more detail about investing in Brazilian land and property in North East Brazil.

Brazil is emerging from the crisis, and next year we are going to have surprising growth President Lula da Silva said last month. A bold but not inaccurate statement. There is evidence to advocate that Brazil will be one of the first economies to recover from the economic slump in an emphatic manner. The OECD is predicting 4% economic growth for Brazil in 2010.

It has been announced that the US is to provide as much as $10 billion (6 billion) in financing to go towards the development of oil fields off the Brazilian coast.US national security adviser General James Jones has been visiting the Latin American country this week and Brazilian planning minister Paulo Bernardo da Silva said that the US Export-Import Bank has now signed an agreement with energy giant Petrobras to finance exploration of the vast deepwater reserves that it is developing with a five-year, $174 billion investment program. The goal is to more than double Brazil’s production, to 3.5 million barrels a day, by 2012, making the country a top oil exporter, and increasing the wealth in the country immensely.

The growing middle classes and consequent increasing domestic consumption of the BRIC nations is creating greater demand for exports. While US consumers continue to tighten their purse strings, Brazil, Russia, India and China will be responsible for around 50% of worldwide export demand.

Brazil has spent enormously on tourism since 1995, increasing international visitor numbers from 1.9 million to 5.2 million in 2008. The 2014 World Cup is expected to increase tourism and the Government is pledged to spend in excess of $250 million over the next 5 years on airports, roads, sanitation and hydroelectric power.

The Brazil property market is booming. Mortgage lending around the world as a percentage of GDP is much higher than in Brazil where it is only 2.5%. In the US it accounts for 68% with Germany and Spain at 45% and other developing nations such as Mexico and Chile at 11% and 20% respectively. Although there was a worldwide economic crisis mortgage lending in Brazil rose 41% last year, while other countries lending contracted. Caixa Economica Federal lent 19 Billion Reais in 2008 and expects to lend 26 billion Reais in 2009. This compared to 5 billion Reais in 2005.

Brazils economy is worth $1.5 trillion, yet exports only represent 12% of this. Its population of 190 million is seeing a boom in the middle classes, which now make up more than half its population. With their increased buying power, Brazilians are buying more food, more clothing and more household goods than ever before. Sales figures for Whirlpool, which has a 40% share of Brazils appliance market, were 20% higher in May and June 2009 compared to a year earlier. Though this has been partially fuelled by tax incentives, which are due to end in October, sales are expected to remain strong. “Over the next five years, we’ll see a doubling of sales of durable goods in Brazil,” says Jos Roberto Tambasco, vice-president for operations at Po de Acar. In preparation to meet the increased demand for white goods, the supermarket giant recently paid $422 million for the appliance retailer Ponto Frio which has a network of 458 stores nationwide.

Leslie Richards is an investment consultant to Brazil Land Invest and advises the company on land acquisitions and Affordable Housing projects in North East Brazil.