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.