Mobius Still Likes Brazil

Templeton Asset Management’s Mark Mobius says Brazil is continuing its solid recovery from the global recession, and remains an attractive place to invest.

In a piece written for the U.K.’s Citywire, Mobius detailed a recent trip to Brazil during which he examined several businesses. “These visits and others we recently made in Brazil indicate a favourable business environment with continued growth,” Mobius writes. “Our focus on commodity and consumer oriented stocks is still viable and we believe it should show good long-term returns.”

Mobius says inflationary pressures remain, but the overall inflation rate is less than half what it was in 2003. Unemployment is also just 5.5%, and he projects GDP growth — which was 7.5% last year — to be about 4% this year. One concern, he says, is the continuing strength of the Brazilian real, which has more than doubled in value vs. the dollar in the past nine years.