What Went Wrong In Brazil?

BRASMLIA,(APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News -24th Augst,2016) - At the height of the emerging markets boom, Brazil looked tantalizingly close to finally living down an old joke: that it is the country of the future...

and always will be. Its economy humming, its international image sparkling, its people exiting poverty by the tens of millions, the Latin American giant looked ready to leap into the ranks of the world's wealthiest countries. Fast forward to 2016, and it has come crashing to the ground. Tripped up by its worst political and economic crises in recent memory, Brazil will hit a new low Thursday when suspended president Dilma Rousseff faces an impeachment trial before the Senate. What went wrong? Brazil's boom coincided with the arrival in power of former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2003, a watershed moment for the country.

The first leftist president since a 1964 military coup, the former shoeshine boy and steel worker was also the first president who came from the kind of poverty that millions of Brazilians face. Blending business-friendly economics with revolutionary social programs, he left office eight years later with rock star status.

Economic growth was 7.5 percent. More than 40 million Brazilians had escaped poverty. His popularity rating was more than 80 percent. Sealing its new stature on the international stage, Brazil was picked during his second term to host the 2014 World Cup and Rio de Janeiro the 2016 Olympics.