Brazil Chamber’s Signature Economic Outlook Event Returns in December

After a pandemic-era hiatus, an event that for many years offered Atlantans high-level analysis of trends in the Brazilian economy is set to return Dec. 4. 

Throughout the 2010s, the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce Southeast ran its signature Brazil Economic Outlook briefing in partnership with the Americas Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, providing updates during a tumultuous period in Brazilian politics. (See the Fed’s 2019 summary here)

There was never a shortage of hurdles for investors to overcome: After Workers’ Party President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva left on a high note in 2010, his successor, Dilma Rousseff, was felled by the Petrobras corruption scandal in 2016, and Lula went to prison on bribery charges. That shift led to the rise of President Jair Bolsonaro, known to many as the “Tropical Trump” for his populist leanings and election denialism. 

The last Economic Forecast event in Atlanta was held in January 2020, just before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which Mr. Bolsonaro famously called a “little flu” as he railed against lockdown measures while thousands were dying in the country of more than 200 million people. See a video and gallery from the 2020 event

Now seems an apt time to check in again, as the country has swung back in the opposite direction: With his conviction overturned by the Supreme Court in 2021, Lula stormed back to power, narrowly defeating Bolsonaro in 2022 to complete a remarkable comeback.

The return of the forecasting event also coincides with renewed focus on outreach at the Brazilian-American Chamber, which focuses on building capacity of local Brazilian entrepreneurs while bridging gaps for investors in both directions. 

“The BACC-SE under the leadership of Board Chairman Mauricio Vianna and President and Founder Lucia Jennings has been very active this year,” said Gisele Gofman, who was named executive director earlier this year, told Global Atlanta. 

Mr. Vianna runs MJV, an innovation and technology consultancy based in Brazil, with offices in Atlanta, Lisbon, Rome, Paris, London and Bogota. Ms. Jennings, a former Coca-Cola director of procurement, started the chamber in the early 1990s.

So far this year, the chamber has held a seminar in English on “how to invest in Brazil” and promoted in Portuguese its “Guia do Empreendedorismo” — a guide for Brazilian entrepreneurs operating in the Southeast U.S. Both events were hosted by the Consulate General of Brazil. 

The Economic Outlook brings back one of the chamber’s signature events — and a speaker who has addressed Atlanta audiences many times before. 

“This year’s event will bring back to Atlanta Mr. Otaviano Canuto former VP at the World Bank, and Thomas Rogers of Emory University, as well as the panelists Daniel Almeida from XP Inc., and Ricardo Oliveira of Delta Air Lines,” Ms. Gofman said. “This year’s theme will be on the short-term outlook and the long-term challenges and opportunities for the relationship between Brazil and the USA under the current and future leadership.”

The event also comes after a contentious election in the United States that focused more on domestic issues than foreign policy, with Brazil rarely mentioned in the political discourse. 

Brazil has long been a strong investor in Georgia, with many manufacturing companies like WEG, Taurus, Embraco, Guidoni Group and others setting up shop in all corners of the state. Georgia multinationals like Coca-Cola Co., InComm, NCR and Novelis have significant operations around Brazil.  

Register for the event here and see a flyer below: