To continue this success, the authorities need to maintain a friendly environment by ensuring stable and predictable property rights. Brazil also needs to assure that the benefits of growth are shared by all its people. Like other countries in the region, Brazil has a high degree of income inequality. Brazil has an interest in continuing the fight against income inequality and poverty, and has taken important measures recently to improve its social safety net. Looking forward, I see many reasons for optimism.
Brazil is a large and diverse economy that is rich in natural resources and human capital.
The Real Plan's success in bringing stability from 1994 to January 1999 is by no means lost. If Brazil stays on the path of reform, we in the U.S. have high expectations. As a prospering economy, a staunch friend of the United States, and the leader of Latin America, it can be a full partner and a major beneficiary of the new economy of the coming century.