With US & Europe hit by financial maelstrom, Brazil is haven of hope
Pondering the financial storms lashing Europe and the US, Seth Zalkin, American banker, seemed content with his decision to move here in March.
Michelle Noyes in Sao Paulo. “I could tell this place was booming,” said, a New Yorker who has taken a job in Brazil. “If the rest of the world is cratering, this is a good place to be,” said Zalkin. For those with even the dimmest memories of Brazil’s own debt crisis of 1980s, the global order has been turned on its head. The American economy may be crawling along, but Brazil’s grew at its fastest clip in more than two decades and unemployment is at historic lows, part of the nation’s transformation from inflationary basket case into one of Washington’s top creditors. Many foreign bankers, hedge fund managers, oil executives, lawyers and engineers have moved here that prices for prime office space surpassed those in New York this year, making Rio costliest city in the Americas to lease it, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
A gold rush mind-set is in full swing, with foreign work permits surging 144 per cent in the past five years and Americans leading the pack of educated professionals putting down stakes. Businessmen have long been drawn to Brazil, along with get-rich-quick confidence men, dreamers of Amazonian grandeur and even outlaws like Ronald Biggs, the Briton who absconded here after his 1963 Great Train Robbery.
But now schools catering to American and other English-speaking families have long waiting lists, apartments can cost $10,000 a month in coveted parts of Rio and many of the newcomers hold Ivy League degrees or job experience at the pillars of the global economy.
One particular shock for newcomers is the strength of Brazil’s currency. Foreigners are arriving, and work authorisations for them jumped more than 30 per cent in 2010 alone, according to Labour Ministry. Americans form the largest group moving here, followed by contingents of Britons and other Europeans. Some are on temporary assignments.
Others are starting ventures big and small. Others foreigners take jobs at Brazilian companies thriving from a boom partly created by Brazil’s trade with China. Foreigners compete with Brazilians returning home from abroad. Brazil’s huge deep-sea oil discoveries have also drawn investors.
