Seeking Emerging Market Growth? Try Brazil

As I wrote earlier today, America’s gross domestic product grew 2.7% last quarter – the fastest growth the U.S. economy has seen since the fourth quarter of 2011.

But U.S. growth pales in comparison to what’s expected to happen in Brazil in the next two years.

Guido Mantega, Brazil’s finance minister, expects the emerging market’s economy to expand 4% or more through 2014. This comes on the heels of a period of relative financial malaise in Latin America’s largest economy.

Brazil’s economic growth has slowed to a crawl over the past year. Its economy is expected to have grown less than 2% in 2012. Meanwhile, its currency has fallen 10% against the dollar.

Now, Mantega insists, the country is on the brink of another economic boom.

“We will enter 2013 with a growth rate of 4% and we will maintain this through 2013 and 2014,” Mantega said.

According to the Financial Times, Reuters economists concurred, predicting 3.9% growth for Brazil in 2013.

So with the fiscal cliff looming in the U.S., Japan and half of Europe trapped under a massive pile of debt, and growth in China sluggish, Brazil might not be a bad place to invest some of your money at the moment.