Agriculture: accounts for 11% of GDP; world's largest producer and exporter of coffee and orange juice concentrate and second-largest exporter of soybeans; other products - rice, corn, sugarcane, cocoa, beef; self-sufficient in food, except for wheat
Illicit drugs: illicit producer of cannabis and coca, mostly for
domestic consumption; government has a small-scale eradication program
to control cannabis and coca cultivation; important transshipment
country for Bolivian and Colombian cocaine headed for the US and
Europe
Economic aid:
recipient: US commitments, including Ex-Im (FY70-89), $2.5 billion;
Western (non-US) countries, ODA and OOF bilateral commitments
(1970-89), $10.2 million; OPEC bilateral aid (1979-89), $284 million;
former Communist countries (1970-89), $1.3 billion
Currency: 1 real (R$) = 100 centavos
Exchange rates: R$ per US$1 - 0.85 (January 1995); CR$ per US$1 -
390.845 (January 1994), 88.449 (1993), 4.513 (1992), 0.407 (1991),
0.068 (1990)
note: on 1 August 1993 the cruzeiro real (CR$), equal to 1,000
cruzeiros, was introduced; another new currency, the real, was
introduced on 1 July 1994, equal to 2,750 cruzeiro reals
Fiscal year: calendar year
@Brazil:Transportation
Railroads:
total: 30,612 km (1992)
broad gauge: 5,369 km 1.600-m gauge (1,108 km electrified)
standard gauge: 194 km 1.440-m gauge
narrow gauge: 24,739 km 1.000-m gauge (112 km electrified); 13 km
0.760-m gauge
dual gauge: 310 km 1.600-m/1.000-m gauge (78 km electrified)
Highways: total: 1,670,148 km paved: 161,503 km unpaved: gravel/earth 1,508,645 km (1990)
Inland waterways: 50,000 km navigable