Economic Instability, Market Opening and Adjustment Strategy in the Brazilian Industry

Following the external debt crisis of 1982, the Brazilian economy entered a period of profound macroeconomic instability, in spite of successive economic plans and policies aimed at stabilization. From the end of the 80's, a new development strategy started to emerge. Since then, trade liberalization has been increased, privatization carried out and free market mechanisms enforced, exposing the local industry to full international competition. However, stability and economic growth were only partially achieved with the Plano Real of 1994. Throughout this process, Brazilian industry has developed a varied adjustment behavior in order to cope with internal macroeconomic changes and external competition. The objective of this paper is to discuss the impacts on the structure of Brazilian industry of the adjustment process it has been through since the early eighties. In order to do that, first, a brief characterization of the institutional changes and the macroeconomic background against which the adjustment process took place is presented. Second, the adjustment strategies adopted by firms aiming at surviving under a hostile environment are reviewed and their main results and problems analyzed. Finally, based on exports and imports time series and on investment data, the impacts of these changes on the structure of Brazilian industry and its future prospects are discussed