A Talk With Brazil's Finance Minister

For the first time in decades, Brazil is enjoying both solid economic growth and price stability. Its gross domestic product, Latin America's biggest by far at $650 billion, is expected to grow by 4% this year, repeating last year's rise. Inflation, which soared more than 40% per month in early 1994, has fallen below 20% annually.

Foreign investors are jumping aboard for the ride. In the first 40 days of 1996, $4.5 billion of portfolio investment entered the country. As insurance against a destabilizing flood of volatile capital, the government of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso on Feb. 9 slapped a 5% tax on some types of investments and raised to three years the minimum maturity of some.