Políticas comercial e cambial, vulnerabilidade externa e crescimento econômico: a experiência da economia brasileira a partir dos anos 1980 [Trade and exchange rate policies, external vulnerability and economic growth: the experience of the Brazilian economy beginning in the 1980s]

First, the paper analyses the performance of the trade and exchange rate policies in Brazilian economy since the 1980s, specifically in the post-Real Plan period. Second, it attempts to relate the different degrees of external vulnerability of the period with the behavior of economic growth rates in the Brazilian economy. Third, it proposes an economic agenda, based on counter-cyclical monetary and fiscal policies, a managed exchange rate, industrial policy and capital controls, to mitigate or eliminate Brazilian external vulnerability, which is so important to assure sustainable growth rate for Brazilian economy.