Study casts light on concentrated wealth in Brazil

Brazil still shows concentrations of wealth. In 2018, the country’s richest 25 municipalities held 36.3 percent og the gross domestic product (GDP). In 2002, this percentage was even higher: 40.6 percent. The figures can be found in a study entitled GDP of Municipalities 2018, published today (Dec. 16) by the government’s statistics institute IBGE.

Brazil has 5,570 municipalities; if only the 100 wealthiest are considered, their slice of the GDP adds up to 55 percent. In 2002, this proportion was 59 percent.

Of the 25 largest GDPs, 12 capitals totaled 27.6 percent of productions, and 13 non-capitals 8.6 percent. Leading the list was São Paulo, accounting for 10.2 percent of the country’s GDP, which, in that year, reached $1.37 trillion. Next come Rio de Janeiro, with 5.2 percent, and Brasília, the country’s capital, with 3.6 percent.

The economic activity in the São Paulo city region, which comprises 92 heavily interacting adjacent municipalities, generated the equivalent of a fourth of the country’s GDP.

“It is an evident indicator of concentration, but there is a trend of deconcentration compared to 2002,” said IBGE analyst Luis Antonio de Sá.

The 1,346 municipalities with the smallest GDP added up to approximately one percent of the GDP and to 3.1 percent of the Brazilian population.

Economic activity

In 49.2 percent of the country’s municipalities, public administration was the main economic activity in 2018. This was also the case in over 90 percent of towns in Acre, Roraima, Amapá, Piauí, Paraíba, the Federal District, and in just 9.6 percent of the municipalities in São Paulo state.

Construction was the only activity with a reduction in volume in 2018 (-3.2%), whereas services had the biggest contribution in the national result, accounting for 73 percent of the GDP. Chief among the acitivities in the segment is trade.