Productivity profile of Brazil

The Ministerio da Fazenda (Ministry of Finance) leads macroeconomic policies and reforms to boost growth and productivity.

The Banco Central do Brasil (Central Bank) performs its functions as monetary, regulatory and supervisory authority in accordance to guidelines issued by the National Monetary Council.

The Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) is the main financing agent for development in Brazil and has played a fundamental role in stimulating the expansion of industry and infrastructure in the country.

The Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA) is a federal publicly funded research centre linked to the Secretariat of Strategic Affairs of the Presidency of the Republic. It provides technical and institutional support to government actions – enabling the formulation and reformulation of public policies and Brazilian development programs.

The Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (ABDI) is a body connected to the Brazilian Ministry for the Economy and responsible for developing incentive programs and sharing knowledge with the industrial sector to improve efficiencies.

IPEA: Uma Análise da Produtividade da Indústria Brasileira (2020) in Portuguese, Avaliação de Desempenho do Brasil Mais Produtivo (2018) in Portuguese, Produtividade no Brasil: desempenho e determinantes, volume 2 (2015) in Portuguese;

World Bank: Brazil's Productivity Dynamics (2018), Jobs and growth: Brazil's productivity agenda (2018);

World Economic Forum: Accelerating the Impact of Industrial IoT in Small and Medium‑Sized Enterprises: A Protocol for Action (2020);

Academic publications: Productivity updates & publications from the Obsérvatorio da Produtividade (Quarterly), Potential and effective remote work in Brazil: Looking into the gap between metrics (2021), Anatomia da Produtividade no Brasil (2017) in Portuguese;

OECD: Scaling up infrastructure investment to strengthen sustainable development in Brazil (2024), OECD Economic Surveys: Brazil (multiple years), Economic Policy Reforms 2023 – Going for Growth, Improving skills to harness the benefits of a more open economy in Brazil (2021), Raising productivity through structural reform in Brazil (2021).

Foster a competitive business environment:

• Reduce market entry barriers in professional services, including by abolishing exclusive rights for certain ancillary tasks.
• Pursue further reductions of tariffs and non-tariff barriers together with Mercosur partners, announced in advance and subject to gradual implementation.

Ensure a well-functioning labour market and improve the qualification of the labour force:

• Devise a comprehensive strategy to foster formalisation, including through lower non-wage labour costs, better skills and stronger enforcement.
• Shift active labour market spending from employment subsidies towards high-quality training programmes that respond to labour market needs.

Improve the availability of infrastructure:

• Increase investment in infrastructure and maintenance, including in transport, energy, telecommunications, water, sanitation and urban mobility.
• Provide more training to officials involved in infrastructure structuring. Make wider use of BNDES’ technical capacity to assist public entities in project structuring, especially local governments.
• Make wider use of public-private partnerships but ensure that all present and future liabilities are taken into account in a transparent way.