1
Source: www.economist.co.uk
Sep 11th, 2008 (Adapted)
It remains hard to defi ne, and attempts to do so often
seem arbitrary. But in Brazil, the middle class describes
5
those with a job in the formal economy, access to credit and
ownership of a car or motorbike. According to the Fundação
Getúlio Vargas (FGV), a research institute, this means
households with a monthly income ranging from 1,064
reais ($600) to 4,561 reais. Since 2002, according to FGV,
10
the proportion of the population that fi ts this description has
increased from 44% to 52%. Brazil, previously notorious for
its extremes, is now a middle-class country.
This social climbing is a feature mainly of the country´s
cities, reversing two decades of stagnation that began
15
at the start of the 1980s. Marcelo Neri of FGV suggests
two factors behind the change. The fi rst is education. The
quality of teaching in Brazil´s schools may still be poor, but
those aged 15-21 now spend on average just over three
more years studying than their counterparts did in the early
20
1990s.
The second is a migration of jobs from the informal
“black” economy to the formal economy. The rate of formal
job creation is accelerating, with 40% more created in the
year to this July than in the previous 12 months, which itself
25
set a record. Together with cash transfers to poor families,
this helps to explain why – in contrast with economic and
social development in India or China – as Brazil´s middle
class has grown, so the country´s income inequality has
lessened.