Happy New Year — it's Brazilian

This New Year there is much to reflect upon. The economic situation at home — cuts, rising unemployment, uncertainty. In Europe the Euro-farce.

If we step back and look at the world we see a more interesting yet equally concerning picture. Take Brazil. An extraordinary event has slipped by virtually unnoticed. Brazil now has a larger economy than our own. And by 2028 her per capita income will be higher than ours. Her growth rate has dropped to 3% but is expected to return to 7-8% within a year (compared to ourselves showing virtually no growth).

Ten years ago the US economy was three times that of China. Now China will eclipse the US within five years.

These are tectonic events with these and other high growth countries telling us both about what the world is going to look like in the future but also about what we need to be doing now if we are to cope with it.

This includes reaching out and trading more with these emerging powers. We hear too much about the importance of the EU as our major trading partner and not enough about the rest of the world.

One MP recently taunted a journalist by pointing out that even the level of our trade with Belgium was greater than that with Brazil. What he meant was that Belgium and by extension the EU are more important trading partners than Brazil and non EU states. I disagree — the comparison he made should inspire us to increase our trade with Brazil not fall back on what we already do with Belgium.

If we adopt a more world-centric and less Euro-centric view there will be many benefits to follow — if we do not then we leave the world open to others.