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How Brazil’s China-Driven Commodities Boom Went Bust
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Brazil's economy is forecast to contract by 2% in 2015, the currency has lost about one third its value and the stock market is down 22% in the last year. This follows the decline in demand for Brazil's commodities exports as China growth slows down. Experts say Brazil is now seeing another boom bust cycle similiar to boom-bust cycles in the past, such as the 1966-73 boom followed by years of hyperinflation and stagnation. Brazil's exports to China declined 17% in the first 7 months of 2015. The crisis is in many ways similiar to crises in other emerging markets dependent on commodities exports. The resources boom leads to overvaluation of the currency, and decline in development of manufacturing away from dependence on commodities exports. Other errors rise from complacency and politics prevalent in such periods. These errors include mismanagement of resources with poor resource allocation decisions such as spending on soccer stadiums in cities in the northeast while basic bus services remained underfinanced in large urban areas, large overspending by the government using state owned bank BNDES to offer rates at below market rates, a credit fueled boom and credit card binge for households, and a reversal of capital flows from the U.S. and Europe with the sharp decline in investment climate. There is a severe loss of confidence in the government of Dilma Rousseff with her approval rating as low as 8%. Corruption scandals at Petrobras show close links between the Workers Party of Rousseff and executives, with about $2 billion in misused funds. Brazil, like other emerging markets such as Russia and India, have taken some lessons from the 1997 financial crisis by setting aside large foreign exchange reserves for a crisis. Brazil's reserves of $397 billion help it cushion the effects with funding of the safety net and support to industries to avoid large layoffs. Other problems not tackled as in Mexico, India, and other emerging markets, are the weak educational system, and poor infrastructure, that create bottlenecks for growth. Brazil could face a lost decade after the debt overhang, decline in foreign investment and commodity export generated revenues.
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Dollar debts for Brazil went up from $100 billion in 2010 to $250 billion in 2015, according to BIS data. Even more in local currency terms which went up from 210 billion reais to 650 billion reais. BNDES and Caixa Economic Federal, 2 state owned banks made up 35% of bank loans in Brazil in 2009, by 2015 this went up to 55%, making Brazil's banking system a fiscal operation overly dependent on the state. With rates as high as 16%, the state banks provide subsidized loans to firms at 5.5%. Monetary policy is difficult for the central bank as increasing rates to shore up the declining real would hurt the economy, which is expected to contract by 1.5% by official estimates, but higher according to other private estimates. The declining real, drought affecting hydroelectric generated power prices, and lower export revenues, in addition to high debt interest payments exceeding 6% of GDP, are leading to low or no economic growth for 2015-2016. This comes at a time of corruption issues and ratings one notch above junk for state oil company Petrobras, which itself needs government support.
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Brazil, Russia, Australia, Canada, are caught up in the commodities bust with dependence on commodities exports. Brazil faces a lost decade because in adddition to the sharp drop in commodities prices, it also has to tackle large debt and capital outflows, a credit card binge of households cutting into consumer spending, and problems with manufacturing from the period of overvalued currency. A serious long term problem as bottlenecks to growth come from a weak educational system and infrastructure that were not tackled in the boom years. The social safety net and the currency are supported by the foreign currency reserves fund of $397 billion, a lesson learned from the 1997 financial crisis.
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