Maybe SouthAmerica can chime in on this. he knows every stat about Brazil there is. Then again, I've never seen him state anything negative about Brazil. The country has grown like mad, but is still an export dependent economy. As of yesterday, 4/1, no major hits on their currency, which has rallied like mad in the past two years. I lived there in the latter half of 2005, and the Real was about 30% higher (2.3 range).