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Brazil. --- Brazil

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Brazil under-invested in infrastructure for over three decades, and infrastructure investment rates have come up only slowly since 2007. Infrastructure needs are sizeable in almost all sectors. It is likely that at its current stage of development the country will benefit from large pay-offs from infrastructure spending. Against this background, the Brazilian authorities have put in place a large infrastructure plan named Growth Acceleration Programme (Programa de aceleração do crescimento, PAC). This programme has been rightly protected from the fiscal cuts announced in early 2011. Nevertheless, some changes to the policy and regulatory framework could be introduced to make public investment more cost-efficient and to foster private participation. In particular: • The second stage of PAC needs to focus on completing the most worthwhile programmes. In addition, the public-private partnership framework should be streamlined. • In most areas, the regulatory framework is working well, but sectors are at different stages of development. Despite important institutional changes in recent years, policy capture is sometimes still influencing some federal and many state regulatory agency decisions. • In spite of some recent progress, frequent disputes appear to delay some infrastructure projects, especially in the energy sector. The main challenge in this area is to hasten the licensing process, while continuing to put appropriate emphasis on environmental and social protection. • Reforms have been implemented in individual network industries, but there is still some room to inject competition in fixed-line telecommunications and to prevent product cross-subsidisation in the electricity sector. Concession contracts in both roads and rail could be refined to foster private investment in maintenance and network expansion. In water and sanitation, where investments are the most needed, smaller municipalities should be encouraged to invest and form consortia to reap economies of scale. This Working Paper relates to the 2011 OECD Economic Review of Brazil 2011 (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/Brazil).

Economics --- Brazil

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Brazil has made considerable progress in recent years towards consolidating macroeconomic stability, which is a key framework condition for sustained growth. Monetary policy continues to respond swiftly to changes in the inflation outlook, anchoring expectations. Fiscal policy has been guided by debt sustainability considerations, delivering primary budget surpluses that have often exceeded the end-year targets. Nevertheless, while the public debt-to-GDP has been reduced, it remains high, especially in comparison with other emerging-market economies. Brazil?s overarching macroeconomic challenge is therefore to continue to reduce the public debt overhang while improving the quality of fiscal adjustment, which has so far been underpinned by revenue hikes, rather than a retrenchment of expenditure commitments. To do so, measures will need to be taken to arrest the increase in current spending, especially on pensions, paving the way for subsequently removing distortions and reducing the tax burden over the medium to longer term, once the debt-to-GDP ratio has been reduced in a sustainable manner. The favourable domestic macroeconomic environment, with falling inflation and improving growth prospects, appears propitious for reform towards the gradual phasing-out of directed credit and a reduction in compulsory reserve requirements.

Economics --- Brazil

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Brazil’s São Paulo Metropolitan Region is conducting a performance evaluation pilot study at three schools serving disadvantaged populations. The objective is first to test methods which can facilitate Post Occupancy Evaluations (POEs) and then to carry out the evaluations. The preliminary results are provided below.

Education --- Brazil

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This paper highlights the large contribution of services to the Brazilian economy and the under-exploited potential of services to sustain productivity gains and international competitiveness. The areas with the largest potential for regulatory reform include improvements in the general business and trading environment as well as specific policies in transport sectors, telecoms and financial services. Reforms targeting services that add value by favouring productivity and quality enhancements, as well as services that increase efficiency by reducing production costs, have strong potential to unlock manufacturing performance. The set of proposed recommendations emerging from this analysis underlines the importance of streamlining sector-level regulatory frameworks to encourage foreign entry and competition, and the role that cross-cutting improvements in the trade and business environment would play to render services providers more competitive.

Trade --- Brazil